Even from a distance, the view of Panama City is impressive. Dozens of skyscrapers line the Pacific coast and hint at great wealth – some of it from the business of hidden money. As the plane approaches Panama City, the container ships queuing for the Panama Canal fall into view, and the rainforest can just about be deciphered on the horizon. Somewhere in between, right behind the skyscrapers, lies the financial district and the headquarters of Mossack Fonseca. The Panamanian law firm has not only helped prime ministers, kings and presidents hide their money. It has also provided services to dictators, drug cartels, Mafia clans, fraudsters, weapons dealers, and regimes like North Korea or Iran. In brief, it seems Mossack Fonseca has helped and continues to help the world’s biggest villains cover up their doings. In focus: the German’s law firm Down in the financial district, hardly anyone refers to Mossack Fonseca’s founder, 68-year-old Jürgen Mossack, by his name. He is known only as “the German”. Mossack and his law firm have been selling anonymous shell companies for almost 40 years. In many instances, they have also provided sham directors for these companies with the purpose of covering up who’s really behind them. Mossack Fonseca is one of the biggest providers of such services in the world. Now the law firm is at the center of the Panama Papers, a project that began with the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ). Starting more than a year ago, an anonymous source began sending the SZ internal Mossack Fonseca data. Over a period of several months, the volume of data increased to a total of 2.6 terabytes. For the past year, around 400 investigative reporters from more than 110 media organizations in over 80 countries have been poring over this enormous mass of data. SZ and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in Washington have coordinated the project. It is difficult to pick the most spectacular story. There are clues that appear to lead to Vladimir’s Putin’s innermost circle and hundreds of millions of dollars. Another story reveals that Iceland’s current prime minister and two of his ministers held offshore companies. The doings of corrupt FIFA officials also appear in the data, as does FC Barcelona’s superstar Lionel Messi.

The leak extends far beyond the law firm’s clients. The documents reveal that Mossack Fonseca, Mossfon for short, may have failed to observe the law in a number of instances. It appears that sanctions may have been violated using Mossfon structures, and that the firm possibly aided and abetted tax evaders and operated with money from illegal sources. The leak, which includes about five million emails, contains an abundance of clues that Mossfon employees also knew about the questionable dealings of their clients. As a result of the leak, Mossack Fonseca has lost its unique selling point, namely its ability to guarantee utmost confidentiality. Searching for clues in Panama City The drive from the airport to the financial district is a journey through the extremes that define Panama City. Just a few hundred meters away from crowded slums, the facades of the city’s skyscrapers sparkle in the sun. By comparison, the three-story glass building that houses Mossack Fonseca’s headquarters looks like a relic from another era. Security guards patrol the building’s entrance. According to internal emails, the reception desk keeps a list of personae non gratae, and journalists are particularly unwelcome. The Süddeutsche Zeitung too was denied an interview with Jürgen Mossack. His spokeswoman explained that the law firm’s partners never give interviews. And yet there is so much to talk about. Questions addressed to him, delivered to his personal address in a letter, were left unanswered. In an email, Mossack answered only that the requested period for a response was too short. When SZ offered more time, Mossack didn’t respond.

Jürgen Mossack, Christoph Zollinger and Ramón Fonseca

Jürgen Mossack’s law firm left about 50 questions regarding its activities unanswered. Instead, it responded only with a very general statement affirming that Mossack Fonseca always acts in accordance with the law. It’s no coincidence that “the German’s” law firm should thrive in Panama. Tucked between Costa Rica and Colombia, the tiny Central American country is home to more offshore providers than any other country in the world. Evidently, the heart of the offshore world beats right here in the tropics. Jürgen Mossack was born in 1948 in Fürth, Germany, thousands of kilometers from Panama. His mother was a saleswoman and his father a mechanical engineer. The family moved to Panama from Germany in the early 1960s, where Jürgen Mossack went to school and then studied law. After graduation, he worked for law firms in Panama and London before founding the Jürgen Mossack Law Firm in Panama City in 1977. At the time, the corrupt General Omar Torrijos’s military junta ruled the country. In 1983, the dictator Manuel Noriega took over. Despite political upheaval, business was good for Mossack’s law firm, which specialized in shell companies. During Noriega’s reign, Panama became the banking center of Colombia’s Medellín drug cartel, in part because the corrupt dictator was on the payroll of several drug traffickers. In Panama, these criminals found a place where they could do their business reliably and safely, away from the public eye. Jürgen Mossack apparently provided services to at least one of the era’s big drug bosses, the Mexican Caro Quintero. After Quintero had an American secret agent kidnapped, tortured and killed in 1985, the United States launched a manhunt to track him down. He was arrested in April 1985. Only a few days before his arrest, one of his middlemen had Mossack Fonseca set up a company to hide Quintero’s fortune. A villa in Costa Rica was part of this fortune. Jürgen Mossack himself acted as its sham director. In an internal email exchange that addressed the Costa Rican villa, Jürgen Mossack wrote:

"Pablo Escobar was a baby compared to R. Caro Quintero. I wouldn’t want to be among those he visits after he is released from prison."

As the years progressed, “the German” gained a certain reputation in Panama. A source says that he isn’t particularly selective about his clients. In his personal interactions, he is considered direct, quick-tempered, and assertive. He is known as a man of few words, but of quick decisions. And, as the source has experienced himself, it is best to stay on Mossack’s good side, otherwise things can get unpleasant. In the spring of 1986, Mossack joined forces with Ramón Fonseca Mora, a Panamanian lawyer, and the Mossack Fonseca law firm was born. Today, the 64-year-old Ramón Fonseca is a political heavyweight in Panama. He has advised several presidents, is deputy chairman of the Panameñista governing party, and sits in the cabinet of Panama’s current president Juan Varela. In mid-March, Süddeutsche Zeitung also sent Ramón Fonseca a request for comment on all allegations. Fonseca, too, didn’t respond to the questions. However, several days later, he announced that he would temporarily be stepping down from his function as presidential advisor and co-chairman of the governing party. Fonseca, who also happens to be a prize-winning writer, announced on Twitter that he was doing this to “defend his company and his honor”. Subsequently, his fans launched diatribes against the critics of the legal offshore business in the comments sections of Panamanian news sites. In official statements, Mossack Fonseca has repeatedly stated that it does not work directly with end clients, but only with intermediaries, such as banks or asset management companies. In fact, Mossfon even offers its end clients anonymous email addresses if desired, with fake names such as “Winnie the Pooh” and “Harry Potter”, or “Fighter”, “Azkaban”, “Father”, “Daughter”, or “Son”. These names even appear in formal correspondence:

From: Mossfon Trust Corporation To: Winnie Pooh We are writing in reference to our meeting with Harry Potter and our phone call from two days ago.