Jürgen Mossack

Jürgen Rolf Dieter Mossack is a German and Panamanian lawyer and the co-founder of Mossack Fonseca, a former law firm headquartered in Panama City which had more than 40 offices worldwide. The firm gained global notoriety in 2016 when it found itself at the centre of the Panama Papers affair, which uncovered the activities of the offshore finance industry. According to the leaked papers, Mossack Fonseca set up more than 214,000 shell companies around the world, some of which were found to have been used for illegal purposes, including fraud and tax evasion. In 2016, Mossack Fonseca was raided by police on suspicion of money-laundering, bribery and corruption. Mossack and his partner Ramón Fonseca Mora were arrested and jailed on 10 February 2017. They were initially refused bail because the court saw a flight risk, but were released on 21 April 2017 after a judge ruled they had cooperated with the investigation and ordered them each to pay $500,000 in bail. In March 2018, the firm announced it was shutting down. In June 2024, Jürgen Mossack was found innocent of all charges by Judge Baloisa Marquinez, in the Republic of Panama.