75 Mossack Fonseca workers axed

THE PANAMA law firm Mossack Fonseca, epicenter of the Panama Papers scandal and linked by prosecutors  to the Brazilian “Lava Jato” corruption quagmire, axed  75 workers on Wednesday Mar 8.

“Despite our many efforts in appealing to justice and the media, the current political, media and economic environment has forced us to have to separate more than 75 employees,” the firm said in a statement.

The massive firing  comes almost a month after the two founding partners, Ramon Fonseca Mora and Jürgen Mossack, were arrested for allegedly helping to launder money in “Lava Jato,” the largest corruption plot in Brazilian history involving  state-owned Petrobras  and dozens of Brazilian politicians and businessmen. The firm gained international notoriety  in April 2016 when it was revealed that hundreds of personalities from around the world contracted their services to hide money from local treasuries.

The company, considered one of the largest in the world in creating offshore companies, has since had to fire more than 250 people in Panama alone, a source reports.

Prior to the Panama Papers revelations Mossack Fonseca had more than 500 employees and 40 offices around the world, including  three  in Switzerland and eight  in China.

The legal situation of the firm, he added, is also affecting the financial services market in Panama, as since  last year there has been a “massive migration of customers to companies in other countries that work on creating of shore companies.

Panama’s Public Ministry has  accused the two partners of the firm and two employees, Edison Teano and María Mercedes Riaño, of being part of  a “criminal organization” laundering  money through offshore companies, .

“Although there is no evidence of culpability for the charges brought against Messrs. Mossack, Fonseca and Teano, they, our collaborators and their families continue to be victims of public scrutiny that points them out without evidence,”  said a company statement.

The partners of Mossack Fonseca, have repeated since the scandal broke that their business is legal in Panama and that they do not know the end use of the offshore companies ” which they create.

That statement has been contradicted by Riano, former head of the company’s Brazilian office who has testified that a team in Panama knew the source and destination of clients money