When the Panama Papers published, two men stood in the public spotlight as unmasked pullers: Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca, the namesake of the scandal law firm Mossack Fonseca. The role of the two men has been described in hundreds of articles, illuminated in numerous books and TV reports and has even been immortalized in a Hollywood film by Steven Soderbergh. Since autumn 2020 there has also been an international arrest warrant issued in Germany against the two Panama-based men.
For the third time co-owner of the law firm, not even a supporting role jumped out. The Swiss Christoph Zollinger had left the firm a few years before the Panama Papers publications – and had always rejected responsibility for the processes. From the the Süddeutsche Zeitung However, leaked Panama Papers always made it clear: Zollinger was the third man at Mossack Fonseca. Former colleagues even refer to him as the driving force.
Now SZ, NDR and WDR have learned that his role is still being appreciated in one way or another: Christoph Zollinger is now also being sought internationally – for aiding in tax evasion and forming a criminal organization. The 52-year-old has long been living in Switzerland again, he is not nearly as far removed from the German court system as his former co-owners at Mossack Fonseca, who are said to continue to be in Panama, where they were also charged some time ago.
This means that number three, the man in the shadows, could suddenly find himself in the spotlight: As soon as he leaves Switzerland – whether for shopping in Austria or for a beach holiday in Italy – he must expect his arrest and extradition to Germany. That’s not enough, American investigators should also be interested in him. After all, it was he who insisted on having one at the time sanctioned financiers of the Assad regime in Syria – and thus the Syrian civil war – as Mossack Fonseca’s end customer. Regarding his role at the time, Zollinger explained in 2016 that his reaction was “in retrospect (…) Wrong”.
Zollinger long ago deleted his work at Mossack Fonseca from his résumé
The new developments around the arrest warrant are likely to be inconvenient for Christoph Zollinger. He had deleted his past at Mossack Fonseca from his resume over the past five years and had occupied himself with other things: with the renovation of old Engadine farmhouses, for example, or with the role that artificial intelligence will have in our lives. He had even written a thriller, wisely not with his last name Zollinger on the book cover, but as Christoph Martin – these are both his first names.
Part of the thriller is set in Panama, where it all began almost 25 years ago for Zollinger almost like a novel: the young lawyer got stuck on a trip to beautiful Panama in the 1990s, where he supposedly helped set up one of the country’s first internet providers.
In 1997 he joined Mossack Fonseca in Panama City, and in 2004 he officially became a partner of the law firm that was one of the big names in the offshore business. At times it employs around 500 people and has more than 40 branches in 30 countries. The young Swiss is right in the middle of the business with letterbox companies and trusts, foundations and secret companies, camouflaging and deceiving. Some of his own finances also ran through Panamanian foundations and various bank accounts, learned is learned.
And if you become something at Mossack Fonseca, you have something to do with the country: Zollinger receives Panamanian citizenship, marries a Panamanian woman and later even becomes a “special ambassador for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”. Quasi on the side he is building a Panamanian bobsleigh team, a professional long jumper becomes a brakeman, Zollinger himself becomes a pilot, the sponsor is Mossack Fonseca and he is looking for the pusher via TV casting show. “Cool Runnings” sends its regards.
Dictators and drug smugglers always at the service
In 2015, however, his image began to crack. Information about dirty business becomes public. There is also talk of the mailbox companies of a financier of the Assad regime. But Zollinger waves it away: It was a long time ago, he was never a co-owner of Mossack Fonseca, he never had direct contact with the Assad helper and he also turned his back on business with the mailbox companies.
Then in April 2016 the bomb burst: The Panama Papers are published. From one day to the next, the world public has a glimpse into the interior of the Mossack Fonseca company – a company that served gun dealers, drug dealers and dictators.
Since then, Zollinger’s role has been described in several articles: As he wrote in an internal e-mail in 2011, for example, that “on my part” the sanctioned Assad friend could be kept as a customer. Today Zollinger describes this message as an error.
In the weeks following the Panama Papers publications, several offices of Mossack Fonseca are searched, mass demonstrations take place, and several politicians who were clients of the firm are forced to resign or are even charged. To date, thousands of preliminary investigations have been initiated against the customers of Zollinger and Co. around the world. To date, far more than a billion euros have been collected worldwide.
In Germany alone, more than a hundred million euros in fines based on the Panama Papers are said to have been paid. The public prosecutor’s office in Cologne and the North Rhine-Westphalian financial administration said they ended more than 400 proceedings. The proceedings against a former colleague of Zollinger from Germany were only discontinued on payment of a fee, another accepted imprisonment and a fine. Another was indicted in absentia in the US.
When asked, Zollinger stated that he had “no knowledge” of an investigation in Germany. His place of residence is known to the German authorities. He is also in contact with the investigators and is ready to provide information. It is the presumption of innocence.
It seems clear: at some point Zollinger pulled the rip cord, at least a little. In any case, Christoph Zollinger, the third man, no longer wants to be associated with what Mossack Fonseca had done for decades. He once stated that he got out of the office because he “did not want to take responsibility for possible offenses by third parties through no fault of his own”, since Mossack Fonseca’s letterbox companies could be abused by their owners. It may well be that it is too late for this kind of insight by now.
Collaboration: Christian Brönnimann, Jörg Schmitt