Panama Papers. Ramón Fonseca is dead. His office was involved in a huge scandal

Ramón Fonseca died overnight in a hospital in Panama City, Guillermina McDonald, his lawyer, told Reuters on Thursday. – He had been hospitalized since the beginning of April – she explained, without specifying the reason for the hospitalization.

Due to his treatment, 71-year-old Fonseca was unable to take part in the trial, which began in early April and concerned the assessment of his and nearly 20 other people's involvement in alleged money laundering. The verdict in this case has not yet been rendered.

Fonseca was a Panamanian writer and lawyer. The law firm Mossack Fonseca, which he ran together with Jurgen Mossack, came into the spotlight in 2016 when The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), in cooperation with 108 newsrooms from around the world, revealed information from a massive secret leak. data from the law firm.

The disclosed information concerned thousands of clients of the Mossack Fonseca law firm, which specialized in establishing companies in tax havens. The data dated back to 1976. The list included the names of heads of state, officials, athletes and businessmen from all over the world. Due to the Panama Papers scandal, governments around the world began to investigate whether politicians, famous athletes and businessmen had committed financial crimes.

After the gigantic document leak, Fonseca took on the burden of refuting the allegations. He emphasized that his company had never had anything to complain about during its 40 years of operation. He compared its operations to a car factory. – We sell the car to a dealer (in our case, e.g. a lawyer), and he then sells it to someone who causes an accident. The factory is not responsible for how someone uses the car, he explained years ago.

SEE ALSO: French actress Isabelle Adjani convicted of tax fraud