Alan Gomez

USA TODAY

MIAMI — The Panama law firm that has helped companies, political leaders and other wealthy individuals hide assets in off-shore accounts has made itself exceedingly difficult to locate in the United States.

Mossack Fonseca, the firm whose internal records were hacked and disclosed worldwide Sunday, once listed on its website that it had an office in Miami, known as the Gateway to the Americas. That makes sense, since many Latin American companies operate in and out of the city.

But Mossack Fonseca's Miami operations have virtually disappeared since the leak of what are now known as the Panama Papers. The 11.5 million documents expose how world leaders, their relatives and their associates keep business dealings and vast sums of money hidden.

The firm's operations in Wyoming and Nevada are just as obscure. In Wyoming, the firm's representative, AAA Corporate Services, is housed in a three-story yellow brick building in Cheyenne's historic downtown. In Nevada, Patricia Amunategui, a registered agent for the firm works in a small office building 20 miles from the Las Vegas strip, she testified in a 2015 Nevada court case.

Nearly all of the 1,000-plus corporations that USA TODAY has identified as being created by Mossack Fonseca in the U.S. are based in Wyoming and Nevada. Those states have permissive corporate secrecy laws. Wyoming, in particular, allows corporations to be formed without any individual named in corporate records.

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The firm's website no longer lists a Miami office. Only a page archived by Google shows that the listing once existed on its website. Florida state records show that Olga Santini, the firm's representative in Miami, is a manager for "MF Consult LLC." Yet her profile on the online business-networking site LinkedIn is no longer active, and she has no listed phone number or email address.

The archived Mossack Fonseca website and Florida state records both list an address for the firm's offices in Miami, but that traces back to a two-bedroom condo unit in a waterfront residential building called "The Palace." The building is located in a gleaming business district in Miami called Brickell and was once featured in an episode of the 1980s television crime drama Miami Vice.

This USA TODAY reporter visited the building Wednesday, but was told that Santini wasn't available. In a statement, Santini denied being an employee of Mossack Fonseca, instead saying she was an "independent service provider" who did work for the firm, as well as others.

"I cannot address any particular client issues except to say that it is my practice to conduct significant due diligence on my clients and it is my personal policy to fully comply with the letter and spirit of the law in every jurisdiction," she said.

Mossack Fonseca did not respond to questions regarding its U.S. operations. But in a statement on its website, the firm said its work in the United States is legal.

"Incorporating companies is the normal activity of lawyers and agents around the world," the statement said. "Services such as company formations, registered agent, and others are frequently used and provided in many worldwide jurisdictions, including the United States and the United Kingdom."

Contributing: Steve Reilly, John Kelly and Trevor Hughes