The curtain is coming down on the firm at the centre of one of the big offshore data leaks that have rocked the industry and prompted debate on the proper balance between secrecy and privacy.

Mossack Foneca, the offshore law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers data leak two years ago, is closing, according to media reports.

One report saying the firm was shutting down came from the Washington DC-headquartered International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which also pulled off the so-called “Paradise Papers” leak last year. 

Data on corporate structures and accounts held by politicians and business owners, among others, have been disclosed – the ICIJ has in such cases stated that the holding of such accounts doesn’t imply crimes were committed. The way such vast troves of data have been taken and published has caused anger in parts of the private client industry, with concerns that legitimate privacy has been damaged.
Mossack Fonseca will close its remaining offices by the end of March, the ICTJ said, referring to a statement it had obtained. 

When this publication looked at the law firm’s website, some of the site's fields appeared to be inactive. The site appeared to make no reference to the closure.

The ICTJ quoted the firm as saying: “The reputational deterioration, the media campaign, the financial siege and the irregular actions of some Panamanian authorities have caused irreparable damage, whose obligatory consequence is the total cessation of operations to the public.”

The leak of data from various firms and jurisdictions has raised questions about alleged hypocrisy of political leaders who preach the need for honest taxation while allegedly using offshore centres to hide money. In April 2016, Iceland’s prime minister, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, resigned from his office as the Panama Papers saga raged because of his alleged use of offshore centres. The issue became an embarrassment for former UK premier David Cameron, whose late father had had a Panama-based account, although there was no suggestion of wrongdoing. Even so, the episode was seen as prompting Cameron to push for more disclosure around beneficial ownership of trusts and other structures - to the dismay of some in the industry. Defenders of offshore centres say that in too many cases, legitimate private information was leaked by the ICIJ and others for politically-motivated reasons, such as a desire to stop tax competition. (See an article on such themes here.) To view an article on some of the lessons, see here.

In the case of last year's Paradise Papers leak, the firm embroiled in that case is Appleby, and it is suing media outlets for publishing information, seen as a test of whether there is a public interest defence for such actions.