The revelation that Ramon Fonseca Mora was one of the top-three donors to the election campaign of then-presidential-candidate Juan Carlos Varela, has raised questions over whether
the today president might have benefited from funds proceeding from illicit activities.
A close advisor and friend of the president, Mr. Fonseca Mora is senior partner and co-founder of Mossack Fonseca, the Panamanian law firm at the epicenter of a global scandal associated
with offshore companies allegedly involved in unlawful activities.
In the face of such serious allegations, which include the alleged use of offshore companies in money laundering schemes, the Electoral Tribunal (TE, in Spanish) should take measures to
determine whether said donations came from ill-gotten funds.
According to Guillermo Marquez Amado, a former magistrate of the TE, the Public Ministry should request that the TE publicly share the list of campaign contributions, including those of
President Varela. Though Panamanian law establishes that candidates must hand over the list of donors of their respective campaigns to the TE, the TE is not obliged to divulge the donors’ identity.
For his part, Ernesto Cedeño, a local lawyer, emphasizes that it is the PM’s responsibility to investigate whether offshore companies created in Panama were indeed employed in money-laundering activities, regardless of whether such entities are also being investigated overseas.
Mr. Cedeño went on to add that “the focus of the investigation must be final beneficiary of the funds: the PM must not only investigate locally, but also cooperate with foreign counterparts,
depending on where the money trail leads, if we have to have concrete results”.
“Top campaign donors make their electoral bets with the aim of receiving favors, if their candidate is successful”, says Elías Castillo, five-time Assembly member for the PRD as well as Member if the Panama Canal Executive Board. According to former Comptroller General Alvin Weeden, it is imperative that “the identity of a campaign donors be known, and that theamounts donated be made public”. Mr. Weeden goes on to add that “information about donors has to be disclosed before the electoral contest takes place – to do so after the election is pretty useless”.
Campaign donations are regulated by the Panamanian Electoral Code, whose article 209 stipulates that “both political parties and candidates running for elected offices are obliged to register all private contributions to their electoral campaign”. The Electoral Code also specifies that “all information relating to campaign donations will be handled in strict confidentiality by the Electoral Tribunal, whose exclusive responsibility will be to ensure that no relevant laws are breached by campaign financing.”
Investigation
The Panama Papers publication, consisting of a leak of over 11 million documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, has highlighted how the firm in question made vast sums of money over decades in the business of incorporating offshore companies. The origins of such fortune, according to some damning evidence uncovered by the publication, would point to shady dealings with clients using offshore companies in allegedly illicit acts, such as money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
Senior firm partner and as well as co-founder, Ramon Fonseca Mora, only recently resigned from his position of ministerial advisor to President Varela in order to face allegations of wrongdoing directly involving his firm in a string of countries, such as Brasil, Peru, Venezuela, El Salvador and Guatemala.
Civic Alliance demanding that the rule of law apply in Mossack Fonseca case
The Pro-Justice Civic Alliance, an NGO, has gone on record to demand that the rule of law should strictly apply in the case of law firm Mossack Fonseca. The organization encouraged other NGOs and civic organizations to make their voices heard against the impunity of the perpetrators of acts corruption, as well as the violation of human rights.
In a public statement, the NGO argued that “Panama has to recover its moral posture as soon as possible, having suffered serious damage as a result of this scandal. The Public Ministry has to carry out an in-depth investigation and send a clear message to the international community that it will have zero tolerance of illicit activities. Panama has to implement rules that guarantee transparency and ensure that the rule of law prevails”.
Only these actions would protect Panama’s role as an international business centre, according to the Alliance. The NGO voiced its concern that the political consequences of this scandal have already been devastating for Panama, and that worse is yet to come. “The fact that Ramon Fonseca Mora was, until recently, ministerial counsel to the President of the Republic, as well as president of the ruling party; […] and on top of that, the fact that family members of his remain in government positions” is highly damaging to the image of the country internationally.
The NGO also qualified the fact that “until the break out of this scandal, Jürguen Mossack was member of the National Council for Foreign Relations” as “utterly inexplicable”.
