Colombia arrests 4 in Panama Papers probe
THE PANAMA PAPERS revelations of scores of thousands of corporations created by Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca to help corporations and individuals dodge taxes or hide money in 21 tax havens, continue to throw a light on suspects, from political leaders to sports stars and entertainment idols, and others working in the shadows.
The latest haul comes from Colombia where prosecutors on Wednesday, October 4 detained four people, as part of the ongoing worldwide investigation.
Arrested were Ecuadorian Juan Esteban Arellano Rumazo, legal representative in Colombia of the firm Mossack Fonseca; Luz Mary Guerrero Hernández, shareholder and legal representative of Empresas Efectivo; Sara Guavita Moreno, deputy legal representative of Servientrega, and Jorge Humberto Sánchez Amado, fiscal auditor of Efectivo
According to a statement from the Prosecutor’s Office, “the Colombian office of Mossack Fonseca offered in its services between 2010 and 2016 an elaborate financial and corporate framework, which was intended to sell false invoices to Colombian companies by exterior companies “.
The legal representatives, accountants and tax examiners of the companies Inversiones Zambrano Pinzón Asociados, society Artextil, the company El Heraldo, Rymel Ingeniería Eléctrica y Medicina Nuclear Diagnostica, will also be imputed for the crime of “ideological falsification of private documents”. They will also be accused of committing procedural fraud.
The Panama Papers led to a scandal in April 2016 following the leak by a body of investigative journalists of the of corporations created by the Mossack & Fonseca law firm for the concealment in 21 tax havens of irregularly obtained fortunes and tax evasion of politicians and other dozens of countries around the world.
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