Panama lawyer Ramon Fonseca has died

He was one of the founders of the law firm Mossack Fonseca, which was at the center of the so-called Panama Papers scandal.

Ramon Fonseca was 71 years old.

For several decades, the law firm Mossack Fonseca in Panama assisted companies in a number of countries with tax evasion. This happened by establishing over 240,000 so-called post office box companies in tax havens.

In 2015, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung received over 11 million documents, which they shared with the international journalist network ICIJ.

The document leak, dubbed the Panama Papers, resulted in a series of revelations about how some of the world’s richest, top politicians, sports celebrities and criminals in several countries had used the law firm to hide their fortunes.

The leak led, among other things, to Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíd Gunnlaugsson having to resign, and a number of other then and former heads of state and government had major problems explaining.

The prosecutor’s office in Panama believes that Mossack Fonseca also contributed to the laundering of money linked to corruption and other criminal activity, which the law firm has denied.

After eight years of investigation, charges were brought against Ramon Fonseca, his partner Jürgen Mossack and roughly 20 other lawyers in the firm. The trial against them opened on 8 April this year.

Fonseca was hospitalized in Panama two days before the trial began and never appeared in court. He died in hospital on Wednesday evening, aged 71, a spokesperson said.