Panama Papers reveal at least 36 Americans accused of financial crimes

Alan Gomez
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The journalism organization behind the Panama Papers made available to the public for the first time Monday a massive database covering more than 360,000 people and companies that have used off-shore accounts to hide assets, including 36 Americans accused of fraud and other financial crimes.

An activist displays a newspaper headlining the 'Panama Papers' revelations during a banking managers meeting, in Paris, France, on April 14, 2016.

The International Consortium of Journalists, which has managed the investigation and initial release of the Panama Papers in early April, highlighted the cases of several in the United States but did not provide details on all the American cases.

Leonard Gotshalk, a former offensive tackle for the Atlanta Falcons who now lives in Oregon, was already being scrutinized by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2010 when federal prosecutors in Philadelphia unsealed an indictment against him in a scheme that used kickbacks to inflate the price of technology stocks, according to the consortium.

Three days after that indictment, the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca accepted a $3,055 wire transfer from Gotshalk to open a company in the British Virgin Islands. That example, according to the consortium, shows how Mossack Fonseca did not properly vet its clients and allowed unscrupulous people and corporations from around the world to open off-shore accounts to hide their assets.

Gotshalk could not be reached immediately by USA TODAY. The consortium said his lawyer refused a request for comment. Gotshalk's case was part of a limited, public release of leaked, internal records from Mossack Fonseca that have already led to the downfall of world leaders and several financiers.

The consortium did not release all 11.5 million documents. Instead, it conducted a "careful release" of documents that shields personal information of the people named, including bank account numbers, passport information, email addresses and telephone numbers.

Until now, all the information from the Panama Papers was held by the consortium and more than 100 media organizations in over 80 countries working together on the project. Journalists at those publications have been publishing stories about the contents of the papers, but had not made the source material public. Monday's release included a searchable database that showed ties between people and companies opened by Mossack Fonseca, but did not include the actual documents.

That set off a frantic dive into the online database by politicians, business leaders, law enforcement officials and reporters to see if any new names are exposed.

Off-shore accounts that are frequently used by the rich and powerful around the world to avoid public scrutiny. Creating off-shore accounts is legal, but they can be used to avoid taxes and hide criminal activity. Laws in Panama and elsewhere require agents that create the off-shore companies, such as Mossack Fonseca, to ensure that their clients are not engaged in criminal activity.

In a disclaimer on its website, the consortium warned that simply being named in the Panama Papers does not "intend or suggest" that the person has broken a law or acted improperly. The statement said there are "legitimate uses" for off-shore accounts and urged people using its newly-released database to confirm the identity of people listed there.

The source of the leak is an anonymous person known only as "John Doe." He obtained internal documents from Mossack Fonseca and provided them to Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

He wrote in the newspaper last week that thousands of prosecutions could come from a full release of the papers. "They should all be prosecuted accordingly with no special treatment," the source wrote.

Panama Papers: What we know now

The articles published by the consortium and its partner organizations, have already led to the resignation of Iceland Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, forced British Prime Minister David Cameron to admit that he profited from his late father's offshore investment, and led to the ouster of top bankers in Austria and the Netherlands.

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