President Varela is also closely tied to law firms that handle offshore accounts. One Alemán cousin is now his chief of staff, and both his vice minister of foreign affairs and the minister of economy and finance came from the Morgan & Morgan Group, which includes a law firm known for its offshore business. And one of the president’s closest advisers until early this year was Ramon Fonseca Mora, a partner in Mossack Fonseca, the law firm that generated the Panama Papers. The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung obtained the data and later shared it with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a nonprofit group based in Washington.

Mr. Stiglitz initially wondered whether the government was serious about his appointment, but he said two things had convinced him that it was. Panama’s vice president, Isabel de Saint Malo, flew to New York to personally ask Mr. Stiglitz to join, and Mr. Pieth was also asked to serve.

The group met officially for the first time in June in New York. The honeymoon did not last long.

“Everyone was guilty of bad Googling,” said one person who knew the commission members. Mr. Pieth added, “We didn’t spend an awful amount of time on due diligence on our colleagues.”

Potential conflicts quickly became apparent, according to notes taken by an attendee. One member expressed concern about damage control, since the expanded canal was about to open — a moment of great national pride — and, the member said, “we will use that moment to say this is who we are and where our future is headed.” When the subject of a public registry of beneficial owners was raised, Mr. Stiglitz said, “you could see them blanch.” And, he added, there was no serious discussion about closer monitoring of tax-advantaged, free-trade zones, or the strong enforcement of the open-records law.

The group agreed that it should secure a promise from President Varela that its final report would be made public. “They said they would go to the government and get it, and they never did,” Mr. Stiglitz said.

Instead, on July 29, the group received a stern note from the government, saying that the presidential decree establishing the commission stipulated that the report “will be the property of and used by the Republic of Panama” and that it would decide what to share with the public. The government also said funds requested for operational expenses would not be coming.