A Panama court has granted bail to two partners at a law firm involved in the 2016 “Panama Papers” scandal, which was set off by the leak of thousands of documents related to offshore accounts.
Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca Mora of the Mossack-Fonseca firm were arrested in February in connection with another scandal, involving bribes in multiple countries by the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.
The two are accused of money laundering for allegedly setting up offshore accounts for Odebrecht to move the bribes.
The court ordered their release on Friday after bail of $US500,000 ($A661,900) each was paid, but that does not prevent the legal case against them moving forward.
Fonseca has claimed they are the victims of “scapegoating” to hide who accepted bribes from Odebrecht.
Mossack Fonseca emerged from obscurity in April 2016 with the Panama Papers, millions of documents stolen from the firm and leaked to the media that illustrated how the wealthy use offshore corporations to avoid taxes.
Panama has not charged the men in any matter related to the papers.
