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Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Journal

2019

Legal ethics

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Full-Text Articles in Law

How Countries Seek To Strengthen Anti-Money Laundering Laws In Response To The Panama Papers, And The Ethical Implications Of Incentivizing Whistleblowers, Carmina Franchesca S. Del Mundo Dec 2019

How Countries Seek To Strengthen Anti-Money Laundering Laws In Response To The Panama Papers, And The Ethical Implications Of Incentivizing Whistleblowers, Carmina Franchesca S. Del Mundo

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The Panama Papers is currently the world’s largest whistleblower case that involved 11.5 million leaked documents and over 214,000 offshore entities. It all linked back to one Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca. In 2016, over 400 investigative journalists collaboratively and simultaneously published stories that exposed the money laundering and tax-evading schemes committed by the rich and powerful. This included political figures and heads of states, celebrities, sports figures, criminal organizations, and terrorist groups.

This article aims to dissect the innerworkings of Mossack Fonseca’s asset-shielding strategy and investigate how the Panamanian law firm was able to circumvent the tax and anti-money …