Ramon Fonseca, law firm founder awaiting sentencing in Panama Papers trial, dead at 71

Ramón Fonseca, a partner in the Mossack Fonseca law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers scandal over the hiding of wealth in offshore entities, has died, a lawyer from his firm confirmed Thursday. He was 71.

Guillermina McDonald told The Associated Press in a phone message that Fonseca died late Wednesday. She said he had been hospitalized since two days before last month's start of a trial centred on his firm.

A cause of death was not provided.

Fonseca was not present at the trial, but his partner Jürgen Mossack did attend.

Fonseca was among more than two dozen associates at trial accused of helping some of the world's richest people hide their wealth. Prosecutors had requested a sentence of 12 years in prison for Fonseca and Mossack, though a verdict has yet to be delivered.

Leak ensnared individuals around the world

The trial came eight years after the leak of 11 million financial documents that became known as the Panama Papers.

The leak prompted the resignation of Iceland's prime minister and the ouster of Pakistan's PM, and brought scrutiny to the then-leaders of Argentina and Ukraine, Chinese politicians and Russian President Vladimir Putin, among others.

WATCH l The B.C. link to the Panama Papers (from 2016):

Panama Papers reveal middlemen between Canada and offshore secrets

8 years ago

Duration 2:36

The CBC is one of only two news outlets in Canada with complete access to all the information that was leaked from the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca.

Also under scrutiny was a former lawyer who was Mossack Fonseca's Canadian agent in the mid-1990s. That ex-lawyer, Fred Sharp, along with three others from B.C. were indicted earlier this year in a securities fraud case by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Panamanian prosecutors allege that Mossack, Fonseca and their associates created a web of shell companies that used complex transactions to hide money linked to illicit activities in the Lava Jato (Car Wash) corruption scandal of Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, which spread to several Latin American countries.

Fonseca and others were charged with money laundering, which they denied.

Fonseca had said the firm, which closed in 2018, had no control over how its clients might use offshore vehicles created for them.

Mossack Fonseca helped create and sell around 240,000 shell companies across four decades in business. It announced its closure in March 2018, two years after the scandal erupted.

LISTEN l How a German newspaper helped break the story:

Panama Papers' data release

8 years ago

Duration 2:02

Investigators hope public scrutiny of the material will generate hundreds of tips about possible corruption and tax dodging