Attorney General, Kenia Porcell. Photo: www.caribbeannewsnow.com

The firestorm that has flared over the Panama Papers disclosures threatens to consume the credibility of country's lucrative offshore financial centre, and this may be an attempt at damage control. 

However, Panama businessmen believe that the law firm’s partners will never be indicted, but that moves will be made by Panama to make it appear that corrective measures are being taken.

This news about the actions of the attorney general has not appeared in mainstream Panama City media due to the fact there is a strict unofficial blackout on negative news, ordered by government officials and now scrupulously followed by the principal newspapers in the capital.

Meanwhile, details about the activities of Mossack Fonseca in Pacific tax havens have shown that the law firm dealt with the Pacific island nations with a heavy hand, including:

(1) Coercing one Pacific island tax haven to delay entering into an information sharing agreement with Australia. The goal was most likely to allow Mossack Fonseca to form dozens of anonymous companies in that jurisdiction, so that it would have a fistful of them available in the future.

(2) Obtaining a monopoly in one tax haven allowing it to be the only financial services provider in the country. This was allegedly done to lower prices, due to a lack of competition among companies, but it resulted in a fiefdom, prime for abuse.

(3) Placing the daughter of a country's president in its local offices in that country, as an executive.

Kenneth Rijock is a banking lawyer turned-career money launderer (10 years), turned-compliance officer specialising in enhanced due diligence, and a financial crime consultant who publishes a Financial Crime Blog. The Laundry Man, his autobiography, was published in the UK on 5 July 2012.