Busted! CIA and Co. Allegedly Used Mossack Fonseca to Hide Activities

Intelligence agencies from different states were using the services of Mossack Fonseca, a Panama firm selling offshore companies, for years to conceal their activities, a German newspaper said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Mossack Fonseca is currently in the center of an international tax avoidance scandal. It allegedly helped the rich and powerful evade taxes using offshore companies.

According to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, secret agents and informants across the world, including the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) mediators, widely used the services of the firm and opened shell companies to conceal their activities.

Among Mossack Fonseca customers were people involved in the Iran–Contra international scandal in 1980s when the US senior officials secretly facilitated the arms sale to Iran.

The newspaper added that the current or former senior officials of the intelligence services from Saudi Arabia, Colombia and Rwanda were also involved with the firm.

Earlier in April, the newspaper exposed alleged involvement of a number of former and current world leaders in tax haven schemes using the information obtained in materials allegedly leaked from Mossack Fonseca.

Mossack Fonseca responded to the leak by refusing to validate the information and accused reporters of gaining unauthorized access to its proprietary documents. It warned that using unlawfully-obtained data was a crime that it would not hesitate to punish by legal means.