Every person inherently possesses the right to privacy, but Ramon Fonseca, lawyer and Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca co-founder, is now in hot waters defending that right.
The hacking of some 11.5 million confidential documents from Mossack Fonseca has created a global firestorm that has embarrassed many world leaders. The law firm specializes in setting up offshore companies, catering to the rich, famous and powerful.
Initial investigation revealed that hacking was done on the law firm's email server. Now referred to as the "Panama Papers", the leaked documents were first obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and later landed in the hands of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The ICIJ in turn shared them with the Guardian and BBC in the UK for analysis.
The ICIJ staffers soon learned of the unprecedented magnitude of the content of the documents as it revealed an underground system that allowed the powerful to hide their wealth in offshore havens. The papers implicated prominent world figures like Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko because the names of their relatives and/or allies were found.
Fonseca came to the defense of his firm saying the email extracts were misinterpreted and taken out of context. He rules out an inside job, claiming that there was no leak, only a hack.
"The only crime that has been proven is the hack," said Fonseca, emphasizing that all the operations of his firm are legal.
Fonseca reveals that he employs about 500 people in Panama and in franchises around the world, and has set up an estimated 250,000 companies in a span of 40 years.
Tip Of The iceberg
The prominent names that have been initially identified may only be the tip of the iceberg. In a TIME report, news of more explosive revelations is in the offing, including the offshore transactions of well-known Americans.
Michael Hudson, a senior editor at the ICIJ, said that the names of at least 200 Americans were discovered in the initial documents and some of them have been earlier embroiled in financial scandals. He and his team vow to keep looking and digging, noting that their work is far from over.
"[T]he biggest thing the Panama Papers has revealed is that regardless of ideology or political party, powerful people, especially high-level politicians, and their families and people closely connected to them are using offshore," said Hudson.
Offshore dealings per se are not bad, but the term often implies a negative connotation.
The first prominent casualty of the Panama scandal is Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, who resigned on April 5.
