Documents, known as the Panama Papers, from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca & Co., showed evidence of the firm creating hundreds of thousands of shell companies and offshore accounts for clients worldwide. Considering that some of the names on the list were tied to United States citizens and corporations, federal prosecutors from the Department of Justice’s main office in Washington, DC and Manhattan’s U.S. attorney’s office have started to investigate whether employees at Mossack Fonseca worked with clients to knowingly facilitate criminal activity.
The list of charges being investigated include conspiracy to launder money, evade taxes and hide bribes to officials. Other prosecutors worldwide continue to investigate the papers in detail as well as an ongoing investigation by the Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s office which has been probing the law firm’s clients in connection with investigations related to the FIFA corruption scandal.
Considering the immense scrutiny, anyone with offshore assets should consider migrating these assets onshore and becoming compliant with U.S. tax and information reporting obligations through programs such as the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program or the Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures which can significantly limit your tax exposure. We can help.
