Law firm helped company tied to Mugabe

MADRID (AP) — The Latest on the publication by a coalition of media outlets of an investigation into offshore financial dealings by the rich and famous. The Panamanian law firm at the center of a big document leak, Mossack Fonseca, served as an official intermediary for a company sanctioned by the U.S. government for its ties to Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe, according to U.S. Treasury Department records. Spanish tax authorities say they are investigating allegations of tax irregularities involving soccer player Lionel Messi after documents released by an international probe of offshore accounts. Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports that 28 German banks used the Panam company’s services to set up or administer over 1,200 shell companies.

Messi’s family released a statement Monday denying wrongdoing and threatened to sue media outlets that released the information linking the Argentine player to accounts in Panama.The Barcelona star was among those named in reports by international media who received a vast trove of data and documents leaked from a law firm based in Panama.Last year, Spanish authorities charged Messi and his father with three counts of tax fraud for allegedly defrauding Spain’s tax office of 4.1 million euros ($4.4 million) in unpaid taxes from 2007-09. They go on trial in late May and face nearly two years in prison if found guilty.

The President involved

President Mauricio Macri is not the only Argentine politician to show up in the leaked documents about worldwide offshore accounts.  Daniel Munoz, private secretary to late President Nestor Kirchner and former President Cristina Fernandez, is also named. Munoz and his wife were named in documents of Gold Black Limited, a company incorporated in the British Islands in 2010 to invest in U.S. real estate, according to the leaked documents. The origin of the company’s funds were listed as «personal savings.»

Adress in Tax Paradise

In 2008, the Treasury Department barred American citizens and companies from doing business with Billy Rautenbach, a Zimbabwean businessman, and one of his companies, Ridgepoint Overseas Developments Ltd. The U.S. also sought to freeze Rautenbach’s assets because of what it said were his ties to corrupt Mugabe officials on a large-scale mining project, according to a Treasury Department press release at the time. According to the Treasury Department’s release, Ridgepoint listed Mossack Fonseca’s office in the British Virgin Islands as its official address. The sanctions meant the company and Rautenbach were barred from U.S. business until 2014. Mossack Fonseca said in a statement Monday that it never knowingly worked with people with ties to Zimbabwe. The law firm said, «If for some reason, unbeknownst to us, some company formed by us ended up in the hands of people having such relations for whatever criminal or unlawful purpose, we strongly condemned that situation and took and will continue taking any measures that are reasonably available to us,» the firm said.

Defending the Legality

Argentine President Mauricio Macri is defending the legality of an offshore company that he was named in that appeared in the leaked data from a Panama law firm. Speaking to a local television station in Cordoba, Macri said Monday that the company was incorporated in 1998 with the intention of investing in Brazil. However, he says the investments in Brazil never happened and by 2008 he and his business partners dissolved the enterprise. In the so-called Panama Papers leak over the weekend, Macri’s name shows up in documents of Fleg Trading Ltd. in the Bahamas. Macri, the former mayor of Buenos Aires who assumed power in December, is the son of tycoon Francisco Macri, an Italian-born businessman who is one of the richest people in Argentina. According to the leaked documents, Francisco, Mauricio and brother Mariano were directors of Fleg. In the interview, Macri does not specify what Fleg invested in, nor does he address whether he received compensation. A statement put out by his office on Sunday said he was named as part of the family business and did not receive any income.

Thousand Germans named

The editor in chief of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper says more than 1,000 Germans are named in the leaked Panama Papers on offshore accounts and they used all the major German banks. Wolfgang Krach says the banks involved included Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, the Hypo Vereinsbank and the Bayrische Landesbank. The Munich-based paper was offered the leaked data from a Panama law firm more than a year ago through an encrypted channel by an anonymous source. Bastian Obermayer, a reporter for the paper, said the source sought unspecified security measures but no compensation.The documents provided — amounting to about 2.6 terabytes of data — included emails, financial spreadsheets, passports and corporate records detailing how the rich and powerful used banks, law firms and offshore shell companies to hide their assets from 1977 through the end of 2015.Krach told The Associated Press the paper and its partners verified the authenticity of the data by comparing it to public registers, witness testimony and court rulings.

Might have a link

The U.S. Justice Department says it’s reviewing a massive tax evasion leak for evidence of possible criminal wrongdoing that might have a link to the United States or to its financial system.Spokesman Peter Carr said the department is aware of the Panama Papers data leak containing information on the offshore financial dealings of wealthy, famous and powerful people around the world. He says the department is reviewing the reports but can’t comment on specific documents.He says «the U.S. Department of Justice takes very seriously all credible allegations of high level, foreign corruption that might have a link to the United States or the U.S. financial system.» It’s not clear how many Americans have been named in the documents but thousands of Europeans have been named, according to local journalists, reports Associated Press.