USA will cancel Ramón Fonseca Mora´s visa

Hours after filtering information related to the case known as the "Panama papers", the Government of the United States (USA) cancelled the visa of the former Minister Counsellor of the Government of Juan Carlos Varela Ramón Fonseca Mora.

The information was given by entire credited sources, after this politician´s law firm was involved in a scandal around the world.

The suspension of Fonseca Mora´s visa would add to the decision of France to include Panama in the list of tax havens.

Yesterday, headlines of the major media in the world did echo the statements of the French Finance Minister, Michel Sapin, who announced that his country has included Panama again on its list of tax havens, and claimed to speed up international action to fight the tax opacity and fraud.

"France has decided to include once more Panama on the list of non-cooperative countries, with all the consequences for all those who make transactions with Panama," Sapin said during a control session to the Government in the National Assembly.

He went even further to say that "Panama is a country that has tried to make believe that it was able to comply with the major international principles" on financial transparency, and regretted that that would have allowed it "out of the black list of tax havens".

"That will no longer be possible", he said, before explaining that it has asked the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development (OECD) that gather its links of taxation to accelerate action against fraud.

Meanwhile, the Secretary of State of Finance, Christian Eckert, recalled that Panama had been on the French list of tax havens until the end of 2011.

Eckert said that last December, Paris had warned the authorities of that country that if they do not rectify its reticence to cooperate in their demands for tax information exchange, they would include them back into the "black list".

In response, the Government of President Juan Carlos Varela did disregard applying the law of reciprocity or "retaliation" to countries that include it in gray or black lists as it would be the case of France.

The Government came out in defense of the publications which link the signature created by the presidential former counselor Ramón Fonseca Mora, and massive filtration of Mossack Fonseca signature documents, to create offshore companies.

These companies amount to more than 250 thousand, over 40 years of service, confirmed yesterday lawyer Ramón Fonseca Mora himself in an interview with CNN Spanish, where he said also that his function is only to make the legal part, and "some names have been revealed" that I didn't know that they were there, because they are sold to third parties.

"The commercial world is given by societies, the world has changed, and there are more popular companies than others. Although the scandal is called "Panamá Papers", most companies are in other jurisdictions not Panama, and is necessary to run the world", argued the presidential former counsellor.

After publications and inclusion of Panama in the black list of France, the President of the Republic, Juan Carlos Varela, has avoided to address to the country, and on their behalf, sent a group of subordinates to explain the country's position. On the other hand, Foreign Ministry reported that the Vice President, Isabel Saint Malo is located in Rome, Italy.

During the press conference, Minister of the Presidency, Álvaro Alemán, said in a nervous tone "we will not accept that Panama is used as a scapegoat for the actions and responsibilities of third parties", considering that each State must comply with its regulations to their citizens and businesses.

Visibly upset, the Minister described the publication "Panama Papers" as "a report that speaks of a law firm´s documents" and not a financial services platform that the country offers.
"Obviously, the Government has to analyze the situation and take measures," emphasized the Minister while not disregarding that an attack against the financial system may be attempted through the media´s attention that is attributed to the title of the publication.

On this matter, Minister of Economy and Finance, Dulcidio de la Guardia, said that Panama is a tax haven and reiterated that in the case of France, it has received 33 requests for information, of which 30 have been answered.

On the subject, former President of Panamá Ricardo Martinelli posted on his Twitter account that "Panama is a country of serious, honest and hardworking people. What is done by a law firm cannot damage or drag an entire country.

Insofar as possible, in a statement, the leadership of Cambio Democrático (CD) is appealing to the authorities to soon start an in-depth investigation on the international scandal Mossack Fonseca that has generated a crisis in the country, adding to the problems already faced by the various sectors of Panamanian society.

He adds that although the Mossack Fonseca case has generated a crisis that must be addressed by the Government of President Varela and lawyer Kenya Porcell, international publications do not question the country, but the way some offshore were used and how companies were created by the mentioned law firm, which allegedly were used to evade taxes, lauder economic resources and finance terrorism.

In the statement they indicate that "Cambio Democrático sees with concern that the crisis generated by the scandal of Mossack Fonseca may complicate the already delicate situation for the Panamanians due to the economic stagnation and the lack of response to their needs and the problems that each day get more complicated such as insecurity, unemployment, the high cost of living and transportation, among many others.

On the other hand, lawyer Ernesto Cedeño questioned that in Iceland "the people have come out asking for the resignation of a Minister. In Panama, some lawyers are trying to cover the Sun with one hand".

Meanwhile, the Secretary General of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), Carlos Pérez Herrera, said that "Panama is not a tax haven; this does not exonerate lawyers from knowing who their clients are".

For now, the Lawyers´ Association said they are available to the Panamanian State and offered the services of representation.

In this regard, the President of Alianza Ciudadana Pro Justicia, Magaly Castillo said "creating offshore companies is not a crime, laundering capitals or evading taxes is".

She also said that there must be a tough hand against launderers and tax evaders. And a revolution on the offshore companies legislation.

Apart from this bilateral aspect with Panama, France has launched a series of requests to countries around the world to try to retrieve the information of the known "Panama Papers" with a view to launch proceedings against the alleged fraudsters.

This happened after the case a French Bank: Société Générale, was revealed which according to Le Monde's leaks, has 979 companies in tax havens with the help of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, and by which their leaders have been invited by the French Ministry of Finance so that they may declare.

This also occurred one day after a case of when the Secretary General of the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development (OECD), Angel Gurria, urged Panama to apply international standards of fiscal transparency, recalling the continuous resistance to do so "immediately".

The Secretary General could use, as a tool of pressure, the submission of a report to the G20 on the behavior of Panama earlier this month.

The German Government and others bought the documents of the international scandal in which law firm signature Mossack and Fonseca is mentioned, while United States authorities analyzed the publications that appeared in newspapers in more than 70 countries, according to cyber disclosures of U.S. media

The U.S. network CNN aired an interview with journalist Gerard Ryle, who revealed that it was a person who had the documents and that these were originally purchased by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reporter Bastian Obermayer.

"The person said that his life was in danger if it were ever known that he was the source who revealed this material, because of course there are very powerful people who are exposed here," said Ryle.

He explained that the German Government then bought the documents, and they are subsequently offered them to British and US authorities.

On another matter, the Voice of the United States of America (VOUSA) reported that the US Government takes this "very seriously" and reviewed reports in international media that include allegations that could have links with the United States.

On Sunday the British chain BBC revealed the scandal related to the filtering of millions of documents from the law firm that created offshore companies that were then used to evade taxes, money laundering and hiding the fortunes of European moguls, China and other countries.

The US President, Barack Obama, said that revelations that politicians, businessmen and world characters hid money through offshore companies shows that tax evasion is "a big global problem".

"This does not happen only in other countries, because there are people in the United States, who also benefit from this", he added. "To a large extent it is legal, that is the problem."

Obama made these statements a day after the Treasury Department adjusted the rules against the agreements of "investment" of taxes, through which U.S. companies merge with foreign firms to move their headquarters abroad - though not their operations- aimed at evading paying taxes in the United States.

However, he ensures that Panama has not yet given the response or the sanction law firms such as Mossack Fonseca.