The trial for the “Lava Jato” case in Panama involving the late Mossack Fonseca law firm, the focus of the Panama Papers scandal, It concluded this Monday with the judge’s decision to accept the term given by law to pass sentence on the 32 defendants for alleged money laundering.
“The court accepts the term of law for the issuance of the corresponding sentence“, said the second liquidator judge of Criminal Cases of the First Judicial Circuit of Panama, Baloisa Marquínez, once the ordinary hearing for this case that began on June 26 concluded.
The Public Ministry (MP) was represented at this hearing by prosecutors Isis Soto and Octavio Nicolauwho requested a conviction for 28 people and an acquittal for 4, while the defense, which closed today with their allegations, requested an acquittal for their defendants.
“We respectfully analyzed the file and the rules within the allegations. to show that our clients are completely innocent of the charges against them,” said lawyer Guillermina McDonald on Monday, who represents five defendants, including the owners and partners of the investigated law firm.
Prosecutor Soto said for her part that the prosecution demonstrated the evidentiary facts that “accredited, not only that there was already a punishable act established by the First Superior Court, but there was the criminal participation of the defendants”.
This trial was broadcast live from the hearing room of the Superior Court for Settlement of Criminal Cases, for “guarantee the principles of publicity, transparency and access to information”highlighted the Judicial Branch (OJ).
Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca, Founding partners of the defunct law firm epicenter of the Panama Papers scandal, pleaded not guilty to the crime of money laundering at the start of the trial for the “Lava Jato” case, for which they face a sentence of at least 5 years prison.
Both are part of the 32 accused for alleged money laundering, which according to article 254 of the Penal Code of Panama is punishable by between 5 and 12 years in prison, plus aggravating factors.
The investigation into this case began in 2016 “due to news events related to the operation ‘Lava Jato’ in Brazil, that allegedly linked a law office in Panama dedicated to the creation of corporations”, as recalled by the Judicial Branch.
The Prosecutor’s Office against Organized Crime of the Public Ministry maintains that the firm Mossack Fonseca allegedly “it gave legal-financial structures for the concealment of money from illegal activities” linked to “Lava Jato” in Brazil.
In June 2022, Marquínez, then as head of the Third Liquidating Court, issued the “provisional dismissal in favor of 39 people, and a definitive dismissal for another” for the “Lava Jato” case.
But last October, a higher court overturned the dismissal ruling and opened criminal charges against 32 people in response to an appeal by the MP.
