A judge has acquitted 28 people accused of money laundering in an international case known as the Panama Papers, including the co-founder of a law firm that authorities say was at the center of a conspiracy to hide money linked to illegal activities.

Jürgen Mossack founded Mossack & Fonseca with then associate Ramón Fonseca, who died in May. Mossack was acquitted on Friday along with others after a Panamanian judge found that the evidence against Mossack didn’t comply with the chain of custody after authorities raided the office of the now defunct firm.

Prosecutors had accused Mossack, Fonseca and others of creating offshore companies and using complex transactions to hide money from illegal activities related to the so-called car wash corruption scandal involving Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, which pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to a charge related to using shell companies to hide millions of dollars in bribes paid worldwide to win public contracts.

The judge noted that other evidence in the Panama Papers case “was not sufficient and conclusive to determine the criminal responsibility of the accused.”

  • Got_Bent@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    56
    ·
    4 months ago

    I don’t know why we’re even remotely concerned with some businessmen, well respected in their communities, conducting perfectly reasonable financial transactions when just last week, I saw a BROWN person in an orange grove, taking all the jobs from “the blacks” and forcing them into poverty!

    Heavy /s though with use of actual sound bites from our burgeoning overlords.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      4 months ago

      Don’t forget about how drag queens are going to destroy the economy by turning our children trans.