Claudia Sheinbaum's family faces trial for these crimes

Litigation has begun in the case Panama Papersor the Panama Paperswhere the family of the presidential candidate for Morena, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardofaces trial for various crimes.

Son 27 people tried from Monday, April 8, Panama Paperseight years after this scandal broke out that revealed how personalities from all over the world would have hidden money through the defunct Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonsecaamong them, the family of Claudia Sheinbaum.

The crimes for which the people involved are accused, such as presidential candidate’s familyare the crimes of criminal association and money laundering and now it is in the testimonial testing phase.

And they are his lawyers from the defunct Mossack Fonseca law firm: Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca, as well as 25 other people, including several former collaborators of the office.

Last Sunday, April 7 during the first presidential debatethe opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez told Claudia Sheinbaum: “There is information from the Panama Papers, where “Your family has not one, but three companies in tax havens to evade taxes.” Then he asked: “Does your family have them?… answer, yes or no?”

Of course the candidate of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s party he denied it; However, three days later, on Wednesday, April 10, Claudia Sheinbaum acknowledged that she always doesthat his grandmother appears in the Panama Papers without revealing details about the amount of money.

Who are the relatives of Claudia Sheinbaum in the trial of the Panama Papers?

These are Claudia Sheinbaum’s grandmother, mother and two aunts, who created a company on March 1, 1990 in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands through Citcoa firm specialized in managing its clients’ fortunes.

Among the documents related to that company, appears the articles of incorporation with the deceased Mati Cemo de Pardo, grandmother of Claudia Sheinbaumas main shareholder (25 thousand shares).
The remaining 25 thousand shares were distributed among his three daughters: Annie Pardomother of presidential candidate (eight thousand 500), and his aunts Esther (eight thousand 500) and Sally Jacqueline (eight thousand).

According to the documents he published Processits first board of directors was chaired by Annie Pardo, Sheinbaum’s mom, Sally as vice president and Esther as secretary.

Las two other companies The ones that Xóchitl asked Claudia about would have been created by two of Sheinbaum’s aunts:

Vanmiste Ltd.by Esther Pardo, formed on December 8, 2008 under the direction of her children Miguel, Vanessa and Stephanie Gurwitz.
Jajoga Ltd., by Sally Jacqueline Pardo, also created in 2008 and presumably active until 2016, under the direction of her sons José David and Gabriel Davidov Pardo.

What is the Panama Papers case or “Panama Papers”?

Los Panama Papers It is an investigation by the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung that came to light in 2016, which showed that the firm Mossack Fonseca created thousands of companies offshore (companies created in “tax havens“, countries or territories with low or no taxation to evade taxes) to clients from all over the world, some linked to criminal activities.

Later, this case was echoed by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ for its acronym in English), which brings together more than 190 journalists from more than 65 countries.

What is being aired in the Panama Papers trial?

The prosecutors of the case Mossack Fonseca partners accusedformer directors and lawyers of having created a web of companies, which they used bank accounts and? they “laundered” money from the German company Siemens AG.

In December 2008, the company pleaded guilty before a United States judge for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Likewise, they are pointed out establish public limited companies and legal structures and financial to hide money coming from illicit activities, which exhibited bribes of Brazilian construction companies, among them, Odebrechtto officials from several Latin American countries to obtain public works contracts between 2005 and 2014.

What happened to Mossack Fonseca?

The firm, which helped build and sell about 240,000 companies in four decades of operation, according to its records, announced the closure of operations inside and outside the country in March 2018almost two years after the scandal surfaced.

*With information from AP, Proceso and El Univesal