Panama's attorney general late on Tuesday raided the offices of the Mossack Fonseca law firm to search for any evidence of illegal activities, authorities said in a statement.
The Panama-based law firm is at the center of the “Panama Papers” leaks scandal that has embarrassed several world leaders and shone a spotlight on the shadowy world of offshore companies.
The national police, in an earlier statement, said they were searching for documentation that “would establish the possible use of the firm for illicit activities.” The firm has been accused of tax evasion and fraud.
Police offers and patrol cars began gathering around the company's building in the afternoon under the command of prosecutor Javier Caravallo, who specializes in organized crime and money laundering.
The law firm said on its Twitter account Tuesday night that it “continues to cooperate with authorities in investigations begin made at our headquarters“.The search came a day after intellectual property prosecutors visited Mossack Fonseca to follow up on the firm's allegations that a computer hack led to the leak of millions of documents about tax havens.
The firm filed a complaint charging the security breach shortly before the first media reports working with the documents offered details on how politicians, celebrities and companies around the globe were hiding assets in offshore accounts and shell companies.
“Finally the real criminals are being investigated,” co-founder Roman Fonseca said in a message to The Associated Press on Monday.
Fonseca has maintained that the only crime which can be taken from the leak was the computer hack itself. He has said he suspects the hack originated outside Panama, possibly in Europe, but has not given any details.
The law firm is one of the most important in the world for creating overseas front companies. Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela has defended the country's financial sector, which is considered of strategic importance for the economy.
But Varela has also promised the international community that he is willing to make reforms to make the sector more transparent. On Tuesday, Varela met with legal, banking and business professional associations.
Afterward, he asked France to reconsider its decision to place Panama on a list of uncooperative countries in financial information.
The government announced that Joseph Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001, would be one member of an international panel formed to review Panama's legal and financial practices and recommend improvements.
Panama papers have revealed financial arrangements of prominent figures, including PM Nawaz Sharif, friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin, relatives of the prime ministers of Britain and Pakistan and of China's President Xi Jinping, and the president of Ukraine
