The Attorney General of Mexico has announced that the Tax Administration Service (SAT) agency has collected USD$21m, from Mexican taxpayers who sought evade taxes by using the services of the law firm of Mossack and Fonseca. Mexican authorities identified the tax cheats, using the data appearing in the Panama Papers, which were files reportedly stolen from Mossack Fonseca, and made public by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
Fifty-two Mexican individual taxpayers, and one domestic corporation were listed, but no taxpayers have been identified by name. After a notice was delivered to the taxpayers, the sums collected were paid. As each country analyzes the portions of the Panama Papers involving their nationals, the role of Mossack and Fonseca, as lawyers who primary role was to aid their clients in tax evasion, as well as laundering criminal proceeds for them, and definitely not as attorneys practicing law, becomes clearer.
Will the partners at Mossack and Fonseca be indicted for money laundering, in the United States ? Their access to the New York financial center, as well as the use of the US Dollar, confer jurisdiction upon them. We hope and trust that the Government of Panama takes the first step, and shuts down those attorney criminals, and that Jurgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca Mora, the name partners, as well as the other firm partners, face justice in the United States.
Contributed by Kenneth Rijock
Chronicles of Monte Friesner