Panama Papers Show How Rich United States Clients Hid Millions Abroad

Many of these transactions were legal; there are legitimate reasons to create offshore accounts, particularly when setting up a business overseas or buying real estate in a foreign country.

But the documents -- confidential emails, copies of passports, ledgers of bank transactions and even the various code names used to refer to clients -- show that the firm did much more than simply create offshore shell companies and accounts. For many of its American clients, Mossack Fonseca offered a how-to guide of sorts on skirting or evading United States tax and financial disclosure laws.

These included locating an individual from a "tax-convenient" jurisdiction to be the straw man owner of an offshore account, concealing the true American owner, or encouraging one client it knew was a United States resident to use his foreign passports to open accounts offshore, again to avoid scrutiny from regulators, the documents show.

If the compliance department at one foreign bank contacted by Mossack Fonseca on behalf of its clients started to ask too many questions about who owned the account, the firm simply turned to other, less inquisitive banks.

And even though the law firm said publicly that it would not work with clients convicted of crimes or whose financial activities raised "red flags," several individuals in the United States with criminal records were able to turn to Mossack Fonseca to open new companies offshore, the documents show.

... presented with summaries of several cases by The Times, Mossack Fonseca did not try to explain its actions. It simply said that its standards had improved in recent years, as rules internationally had tightened.

... In 2001, Sanford I. Weill, then the chief of Citigroup, set up an offshore account called April Fool for his yacht. Alfonso Soriano, a former Major League Baseball All-Star player with the Yankees and other teams, had a Panamanian corporation created for him. John E. Akridge III, a leading real estate developer in Washington, flew to Panama to meet with Mossack Fonseca lawyers, who in 2011 created the Cyclops Family Foundation in Panama, along with a related bank account.

... For its best customers, like the Ponsoldts, who declined repeated requests to discuss their work with Mossack Fonseca, the firm's ministrations went far beyond legal services and banking. It acted as a concierge for "all details regarding your properties and worldwide business affairs," for example, helping the family confidentially purchase (and dispose of) luxury condominiums at resort destinations and even arranging repairs for a car stored at a vacation home and hiring a contractor to fix broken poolside tiles, the documents show.

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Across the United States, Mossack Fonseca picked up clients who had similarly urgent and delicate demands.

For more than 30 years as the founder of Boston Capital Ventures, Harald Joachim von der Goltz has built a reputation as a savvy investor in emerging companies.

What few know, however, is that over roughly that same span of time and with the help of Mossack Fonseca, Mr. von der Goltz has also come to command a vast offshore empire: interconnected corporations, foundations and bank accounts with about $70 million in assets, according to internal emails.

A lawyer for Mr. von der Goltz said the beneficial owner of all of the trusts and accounts is Mr. von der Goltz's 100-year-old mother, who resides in Guatemala. One document also suggests that the tens of millions of dollars in the accounts originally came from businesses operated by Mr. von der Goltz's father.

But numerous other documents prepared by Mossack Fonseca and signed by Mr. von der Goltz list him as the founder, manager and "first beneficiary" of the foundation that controls most of the family's wealth. Mr. von der Goltz also put assets from companies he helped operate into the accounts, documents show.

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Other case files examined by The Times show how Mossack Fonseca may have turned a blind eye in the vetting process while helping Kjell Gunnar Finstad, a Texas resident, set up an oil company offshore in 2013.

Mossack Fonseca has long maintained that it will not work for individuals with criminal records or whose conduct raises "red flags" during its due-diligence process. But the firm somehow either missed or overlooked Mr. Finstad's past when it conducted a background search of potential directors for the new offshore oil company, OK Terra Energy, which was run out of Houston but registered in the British Virgin Islands.

Three years earlier, Mr. Finstad, the company's controlling partner and lead investor, had been convicted in Norway for various breaches of securities and accounting laws involving a company called Norex Group. The case was major news in Norway.

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But the experts who reviewed some of the documents related to the Ponsoldts, Mr. von der Goltz and Ms. Olszewski said that the firm itself seemed to realize it was taking risks.

"They were not always sure themselves which side of the line they were on at any given moment," said Ross S. Delston, a former federal banking regulator who now specializes in combating money-laundering efforts. "It is apparent that members of the firm were aware they were treading very close to the line."

In 2013, Mossack Fonseca advised Ms. Olszewski to seek outside counsel and consider reporting herself to the I.R.S., warning of possible "severe" repercussions if she did not. The warning came in the wake of a Justice Department investigation of the role that certain Swiss banks had played in helping United States citizens evade federal taxes.

Records show that Mossack Fonseca had been paid at least $102,000 over nine years to help Ms. Olszewski handle various transactions.

Ms. Olszewski took the firm's advice, and belatedly disclosed her accounts to the I.R.S., the documents show. And by 2014, she asked Mossack Fonseca to shut down her accounts and offshore entities, which collectively held at least $1.7 million.

"I'm in complete compliance with all my U.S. tax and reporting requirements," Ms. Olszewski said in an emailed statement when The Times asked about the accounts.