Central players in the Panama Papers case were among 39 people acquitted on money-laundering charges on Friday. Panamanian judge Baloísa Marquínez Morán found that prosecutors in the trial failed to prove that Mossack Fonseca, a now-defunct law firm, had hidden illicit cash from a Brazilian construction company. Lawyers Jurgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca were charged with setting up offshore accounts for the business to move bribes. In the 2016 Panama Papers leaks, some 11 million financial records from some of the world’s richest and most powerful people were exposed, showing widespread use of offshore accounts to hide money from tax authorities. World leaders, including Vladimir Putin, were implicated in the leaks, and the Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson resigned after his financial affairs were exposed.
