Founders of Mossack Fonseca questioned over Odebrecht bribery scandal

Ramon Fonseca, a partner at Mossack Fonseca, denied that his firm had a connection to Odebrecht

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Panamanian prosecutors raided the offices of Mossack Fonseca, seeking possible links to Brazilian engineering company Odebrecht, the attorney general’s office said on Thursday.

Ramon Fonseca and Jurgen Mossack, the founding partners of Mossack Fonseca law firm, were on Friday questioned by Panama’s Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. This, as part of an investigation into alleged irregular financial activities in Brazil.

“The information collected allegedly identifies the Panamanian firm as a criminal organisation that is dedicated to hiding assets, money from suspicious origins, and creating corporate and financial structures directly associated with the law firm, Attorney General Kenia Porcell said at a press conference.

Earlier, Panamanian prosecutors raided the offices of Mossack Fonseca, seeking possible links to Brazilian engineering company Odebrecht, the attorney general’s office said on Thursday.

“Raid of offices of law firm that created limited liability companies in Brazil linked to #LavaJato #PanamaPapers,” the attorney general’s office said on Twitter, without providing more details.

The Panama Papers, which consist of millions of documents stolen from Mossack Fonseca and leaked to the media in April 2016, provoked a global scandal after showing how the rich and powerful used offshore corporations to evade taxes.

Ramon Fonseca, a partner at Mossack Fonseca, denied that his firm had a connection to Odebrecht, which has admitted to bribing officials in Panama and other countries to obtain government contracts in the region between 2010 and 2014.

“Mossack Fonseca has no relationship with Odebrecht, nor with any other Lava Jato company,” Fonseca told reporters, referring to companies involved in the so-called Lava Jato probe centered on Brazil’s state-run oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA.

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“They’re using me to divert attention,” he said. Fonseca also accused Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela of directly receiving money from Odebrecht, Latin America’s largest engineering company.

“He (Varela) told me that he had accepted donations from Odebrecht because he could not fight with everyone,” Fonseca said, without giving more details.

At a media conference, Varela denied he received donations from Odebrecht, saying he would make all donations to his political campaign public on Friday. Odebrecht did not respond immediately to requests for comment.