The Panamanian law firm at the center of an unfolding international scandal was the victim of hacking, the firm’s founding partner said on Wednesday, and he is asking government investigators to look into it.
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“We rule out an inside job. This is not a leak. This is a hack,” 63-year-old Ramon Fonseca said in an interview with Reuters. “We have a theory and we are following it … We have already made the relevant complaints to the attorney general’s office, and there is a government institution studying the issue.”
Fonseca added that the more than 11 million pages that leaked to reporters were being misrepresented, and that the firm’s clients would ultimately be vindicated. “The (emails) were taken out of context,” Fonseca said, calling it a “witch-hunt.”
The so-called Panama Papers show the firm set up more than 250,000 shell companies over the last 40 years for leaders around the world to hide offshore investments. Those companies have been tied to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, relatives of prime ministers in Britain and Pakistan, and the head of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, among others.
The papers claimed their first victim on Tuesday, when Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson announced his resignation.
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“The only crime that has been proven is the hack,” Fonseca added. “No one is talking about that. That is the story.”
“This is a tropical storm, like the ones we have here in Panama where once it passes the sun will come out,” Fonseca said. “I guarantee you that we will not be found guilty of anything.”
