Police in Panama have raided the headquarters of the law firm at the centre of a massive data leak.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said the operation had been carried out at the offices of Mossack Fonseca in Panama City “without incident or interference”.<\/p>\n
The leaked “Panama Papers” have shown how some wealthy people use offshore firms to evade tax and avoid sanctions.<\/p>\n
The firm has denied wrongdoing. It says it is the victim of a hack and that the information is being misrepresented.<\/p>\n
Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela has promised to work with other countries to improve transparency in its offshore financial industry.<\/p>\n
Police carried out Tuesday’s raid along with officials from an organised crime unit. Officers set up a perimeter around the headquarters while prosecutors entered the offices to search for documents.<\/p>\n
Afterwards, the attorney general’s office said the aim had been “to obtain documentation linked to the information published in news articles that establish the use of the firm in illicit activities”.<\/p>\n
The statement added that searches would also take place at subsidiaries of the firm.
\nPanama’s government promised an investigation soon after news reports emerged more than a week ago based on more than 11 million documents from the firm.<\/p>\n
The firm tweeted [in Spanish] that it “continues to co-operate with authorities in investigations made at our headquarters”.<\/p>\n
Many other countries are probing possible financial crimes by the rich and powerful in the aftermath of the leak.<\/p>\n
Mossack Fonseca partner Ramon Fonseca says the company had been hacked by servers based abroad and has filed a complaint with the Panamanian attorney general’s office.<\/p>\n
Mr Fonseca served as a minister in Mr Valera’s government but stepped aside earlier this year after separate allegations linked the firm to the corruption scandal engulfing the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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