Judge dismisses all charges in Panama Papers, Operation Car Wash cases

A Panamanian court Friday acquitted all 28 people charged with money laundering connection with the Panama Papers and Operation Carwash scandals.

5 comments

I have not followed this story closely, if not very much at all. Is this just another example of the uber-wealthy getting away with crimes in broad daylight? Or is this something else entirely?
- The named people are merely the central facilitators of the scheme. The general lack of consequences for the uber-wealthy named in the papers has been an ongoing theme, the lackeys getting away without a conviction is just the cherry on top.
  
  IIRC in Germany there's still an active prosecution section working on the cases (and only those). It takes a long time to go through. And we may not hear of what comes of the cases.
- Either that or the journalists finally getting out of prison. Usually the only folks who suffer fallout from stories like this is the ones who spoke truth to power.
Fonseca died during the trial and was cleared of charges in May.

They cleared them early because they died? Could they still have ruled after death or not? If they could, there must have been enough reason to clear?