The Panama papers are a real humdinger. They tell a racy Hailey-esque story of clandestine financial artifice, the sort of which Bond thrillers are made of. And they name names. It is no mean feat — handling of trillions of bytes worth of raw data, making sense of it all to show the involvement of world leaders, politicians, celebrities and major businessmen in possibly underhanded financial activity. The research, collation, processing and presentation, all reportedly took the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) — in collaboration with German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung — close to a year.
So, imagine how big a feat it had to have been to actually mastermind the labyrinthine corporations that lie in that data, in a playing field that stretched across the globe. And for 30 years.
Mossack Fonseca. Remember the name. Or, rather, the names.
What is Mossack Fonseca?
Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm that offers “trust services,” was set up in 1986 by founding partners Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca Mora. The firm “helps companies incorporate and provides registered agent services” for clients (e.g., lawyers, banks, and trusts). It has over 500 employees working in 40 offices across the globe, including in Switzerland, China, the British Virgin Islands, among others. Its USP is the confidentiality and discretion it offers to its clients.
What the Panama Papers show...
The 2.6 terabytes of data — 11 million documents including emails, bank accounts, client records from all the way back in 1977 — give details of persons who made use of the “trust services” offered by Mossack Fonseca to set up shell companies, presumably for stowing away ill-gotten wealth in offshore tax havens (wealth that could be on the level, or accumulated by money laundering or other corrupt practices).
Whom the papers implicate...
Some of the high-profile names, among the 143 politicians, include Russian President Vladimir Putin, British President David Cameron, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson. Several other celebrities find dubious mention, including sportsman Lionel Messi, film personalities Amitabh Bachchan, and Jackie Chan.
Mossack Fonseca’s response...
The firm, however, denies having any links with the companies they helped set up. At the same time, it claims to follow Know Your Customer norms, which obligate a company to know the background and intentions of its clients.
In a response to ICIJ's queries, the firm said on March 22: “It is well established that many countries (e.g. UK, USA) have trust laws that permit a person or enterprise to represent a third party in a fiduciary capacity, which is 100% legal and serves an important purpose in global commerce.”
Founding partner Ramón Fonseca analogised its position with that of a car manufacturer who cannot be held criminally responsible for building an automobile that goes on to be used in a robbery.
In other words, MF claims only to help incorporate or set up companies. It presumes to indulge in no wrongdoing, even if the utmost secrecy on which the firm prides itself on offers a sure-shot avenue for misuse.
The men behind the mosaic...
So, who are the men behind “Panama's first ISO 9001 certified Law Firm”?
Jürgen Mossack: Born in Bavaria in 1948 to a former-Nazi-turned-CIA-agent, Jürgen Mossack's story sells — if not tells — itself.
Erhard Mossack was “senior corporal” in the Waffen-SS. The SS, or Schutzstaffel, was a paramilitary organisation set up by Adolf Hitler in 1925, and its personnel served as bodyguards for him and other high-ranking officials of the Nazi party during World War II. The Waffen was the armed wing of the SS, a bodyguard’s bodyguard, if you will. And Jürgen's father was part of its “Death's Head” division.
According to the U.S. intelligence files accessed by ICIJ, Mossack senior approached the U.S. government, apparently in self-interest, offering to inform on his former party-members who were taking to Communism. Later, in the 1960s, he moved to Panama, family in tow, where he reportedly offered to gather information on Cuban communists for the CIA.
Early career...
In 1973, Jürgen obtained a law degree from the Universidad Católica Santa María La Antigua. After practising law for a couple of years in London, he moved back to Panama, where he set up his own law firm. In 1986, he would team up with Ramon Fonseca to establish Mossack Fonseca.
E xtracurricular activities...
Between 2009 and 2014, Jürgen was member of the Conarex (Consejo Nacional de Relacions Exteriores), Panama's council on foreign relations. The leak forced him to resign on April 7. He is also a member of the International Maritime Association and of the prestigious Club Union of Panama, owns a teak plantation, a yacht christened Rex Maris, and collects gold coins.
Ramón Fonseca Mora: He was born in 1952 in Panama and pursued law and political science at the University of Panama and the London School of Economics.
Ramón Fonseca had admittedly aspired to be a man of the cloth, work for the United Nations and “save the world”, before falling in step with countless others who age only to shed their idealism for materialism.
Literary man...
Yet, the idealism seems not to have smouldered out in Ramón Fonseca's life — he is an award-winning novelist of works such as Mister Politicus , which “articulates the tangled processes that unscrupulous officials use to gain power and achieve their detestable ambitions”, Dance of the Butterflies and Dream City . The latter two won him the Ricardo Miró Prize, Panama's national literary award in 1994 and 1998.
In fact, on Twitter he is a self-proclaimed “lawyer, writer and dreamer”.
In high places...
He is also part-politician, as president of the nationalistic Panameñista Party and former top diplomat in the government of the Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela. He held the latter post for nearly two years, till earlier this month, when he announced a “leave of absence” over “money-laundering” allegations against Mossack Fonseca’s Brazillian office.
