Mossack Fonseca is keeping on a skeleton staff to comply with requests from authorities (Credit: Reuters)

Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers scandal, says it is shutting down due to the economic and reputational damage inflicted by its role in the global tax evasion debacle. April 3, 2016 marked the beginning of the "Panama Papers" scandal -- a leak of 11.5 million files from Mossack Fonseca's digital archive that revealed how wealthy and influential figures across the world had created offshore businesses to safeguard assets. In a statement Mossack Fonseca said: “The reputational deterioration, the media campaign, the financial siege and the irregular actions of some Panamanian authorities have caused irreparable damage, whose obligatory consequence is the total cessation of operations to the public.”

Mossack Fonseca said it would “continue to call for justice” and said it would work with authorities to “demonstrate that no crime has been committed”. Mossack Fonseca said a skeleton staff would remain in order to comply with requests from authorities and other public and private groups.
Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca announces that it is shutting down due to the economic and reputational damage inflicted by its role in the global tax evasion scandal.