Overview
- Defendant is identified in court reporting as 56-year-old Swiss national Christoph Zollinger, a former co-owner of Mossack Fonseca.
- He entered a partial confession to aiding tax evasion but rejects the accusation of forming a criminal association.
- Cologne prosecutors charge conduct spanning 2002 to 2019, alleging schemes that helped clients hide assets from German tax authorities.
- The indictment says offshore entities were marketed to conceal beneficial owners and to obscure payment flows rather than conduct real business.
- The court has scheduled seven hearing days, marking Germany’s first criminal case arising from the 2016 Panama Papers leak coordinated by SZ and ICIJ.