Panama Papers trial gets go-ahead from Supreme Court

Panama’s Supreme Court has upheld the decision to call the 32 defendants to trial for alleged money laundering through the use of offshore companies linked to the liquidated firm Mossack Fonseca, in the Panama Papers investigation.

Through a ruling issued on May 11 and under the presentation of the magistrate, María Cristina Chen Stanziola, the plenary session of the Court decided not to admit an Amparo of constitutional guarantees presented by the lawyers of Jurgen Mossack, Edison Teano, Ernesto González De Gracia, and Sandra Naranjo de Cornejo against an order of January 19, 2022, with which Judge Baloisa Marquínez called those involved in the case to trial.

The ruling maintains the decision of the First Superior Court of January 23, 2022, which decided not to admit the amparo on the grounds that there was no violation of constitutional guarantees.

The trial for this case is scheduled to take place between November 13 and December 4, 2023. In principle, it was scheduled to take place between December 6 and 9, 2022, but it did not take place because the Superior Liquidation Court was still managing judicial assistance at an international level.

The special prosecutor against organized crime, Isis Soto, stated that the investigation arose as a result of the publications of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), in 2016, has two aspects: one aimed at clarifying the purchase of real estate in Panama with alleged illicit money and another related to the firm Mossack Fonseca, which would have facilitated the creation of legal structures (corporations), supposedly to move funds for the payment of bribes. Among the 32 investigated are lawyers.

Prosecutor Soto has indicated that there is evidence of irregularities committed by members of the law firm, who used third parties to create the companies.