John Bacon

USA TODAY

Fallout from the explosive Panama Papers leaks spread to Peru in the midst of a bitter presidential election battle when authorities raided the Lima office of the Panamanian law firm Mossak Fonseca.

A team of 20 tax officials and armed national police officers on Monday seized financial documents from the property located across the street from Panama's embassy, the National Superintendency of Tax Administration (SUNAT) said.

"The team SUNAT has been conducting a series of inquiries ... focusing on whether offshore companies created through Mossack Fonseca served to commit unlawful acts such as tax evasion and fraud in our country," SUNAT said in a statement.

The Panama Papers are based on documents leaked from Mossack Fonseca offices. The global firm has no official standing in Peru but is represented there by Peruvian economist Monica Ycaz Clerc, Ojo Público reported.

SUNAT said it wanted to determinewhether any tax evasion cases already under investigation are related to firms named in the Panama Papers.

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The raid came one day after the first round of Peru's presidential elections. The two candidates who advanced to a June runoff have connections to the leaked documents. Two major contributors to top vote-getter Keiko Fujimori's campaign were named in the papers, and foe Pedro Pablo Kuczynski wrote a letter of recommendation included in the leaks.

Last week, Peru's office of special prosecutor for money-laundering cases named a lawyer to oversee a Panama Papers investigation. Ojo Público called the case "a fiscal paradise that will likely expose Peruvian citizens."

Journalists and tax authorities around the world have been poring over more than 10 million documents revealing financial accounts set up in tax-haven countries through Mossack Fonseca. The leaked information was funneled through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to more than 100 news outlets in scores of countries.

Although the disclosures appear to shed light on how the rich and powerful have hidden fortunes in offshore accounts, Mossack Fonseca has steadfastly maintained that it broke no laws and did nothing wrong. Investigators from Panama's intellectual property office descended on Mossack Fonseca's home office in Panama City on Monday, trying to determine how the leak occurred.

The release of the data prompted investigations around the world.

Controversy surrounding the release led to the stepping down of the prime minister of Iceland. A data trail linked stashed billions to friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin. And British Prime Minister David Cameron released his tax returns for the past seven years following the revelation that his father ran an offshore investment fund before he died. Cameron has pressed for improved financial transparency in the United Kingdom and will host a global anti-corruption summit in London next month.

Protesters seeking global financial reforms gathered Tuesday outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels and at the offices of a bank in France called out in the Panama Papers.

Still, Cynthia McClintock, a political science professor at George Washington University who specializes in Peruvian affairs, said the disclosures are barely making a ripple in Peru.

"In most countries, this would be a big story," McClintock told USA TODAY. "But Peru has so many elections issues."

She said she recently asked a Peruvian journalist why the issue hasn't been more widely publicized.

"The answer was, 'Ah, Peruvians can't understand hedge funds. What do they know about offshore banking?'" McClintock said.