Panama Papers firm under scrutiny once again

A dozen heads of state or former heads of state are included in the data leak from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca .

The release of the Panama Papers may introduce most people to the secretive law firm that created offshore corporations that helped world leaders hide assets, but Mossack Fonseca was already well known to investigators and prosecutors around the world.


The Panama City firm, created in the 1980s through a merger of the law practices of German-born Jurgen Mossack and Panamanian lawyer Ramon Fonseca, has long been in the middle of investigations into money-laundering, corruption and government graft.

In January, one of the lead prosecutors in Brazil's ever-growing corruption scandal publicly called Mossack Fonseca "a big money launderer" involved in the wide-ranging probe. Last year, the firm became a central part of a lawsuit that alleged Argentina's former president created 123 shell companies in Las Vegas to hide stolen assets. And as far back as 2001, the U.S. State Department said the firm entered into an "awkward sharing agreement" with the tiny Pacific island of Niue to control foreign companies' ability to establish themselves there.