American lawyer here.

American lawyers can provide the services provided by Mossack Fonseca.

Do you even need a lawyer? http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2016/04/panama-p...

It is a legitimate question but it could simply be the case that the US has laws that made it impossible for Americans to exploit the services of this particular law firm.

It's the other way around. American's can more easily get the same services on-shore, for instance, by setting up shell companies in Delaware.

That might be why they wouldn't have American clients, but they do - 400+ American clients.

What that doesn't explain is why no American clients were listed in this "leak".

There's going to be a second batch of papers released on Monday, May 9th - http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/04/28/second-panama-paper... - that will supposedly have more informations on Americans.

At least one American was named in the Panama Papers: Igor Olenicoff.

I wish there would be a Panama Papers leak, why do only a limited amount of people are allowed to see these things, who's deciding what to publish? (I know, they always quote privacy as a reason but just as John Doe said: Those who use the vehicle of an offshore account has most often something to hide...)

>The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists will release on May 9 a searchable database with information on more than 200,000 offshore entities that are part of the Panama Papers investigation.

...

>When the data is released, users will be able to search through the data and visualize the networks around thousands of offshore entities, including, when available, Mossack Fonseca’s internal records of the company’s true owners. The interactive database will also include information about more than 100,000 additional companies that were part of the 2013 ICIJ Offshore Leaks investigation.

>While the database opens up a world that has never been revealed on such a massive scale, the application will not be a “data dump” of the original documents – it will be a careful release of basic corporate information.

>ICIJ won’t release personal data en masse; the database will not include records of bank accounts and financial transactions, emails and other correspondence, passports and telephone numbers. The selected and limited information is being published in the public interest.

https://panamapapers.icij.org/20160426-database-coming-soon....

Thank you very much for this. I was under the false impression that these informations would be hidden forever and just be accessible for a few.