The Laundromat: The Panama Papers Movie with Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman
The film is based on the book “The Secrecy World” by Jake Bernstein, senior reporter on the team that broke the Off Shore Corporate (money laundering, hiding, tax evasion) services, started in panama and inherited after the arrest of Manuel Noriega to other jurisdictions. The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 1, 2019, before being released for digital streaming on October 18, 2019, by Netflix.
The Laundromat is a 2019 American biographical comedy-drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh, with a screenplay by Scott Z. Burns. It stars Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas, Jeffrey Wright, David Schwimmer, Matthias Schoenaerts, James Cromwell, and Sharon Stone.
The film follows Ellen Martin (Streep), whose dream vacation takes a wrong turn and leads her down a rabbit hole of shady dealings that can all be traced to one Panama City law firm, run by seductive partners Jürgen Mossack (Oldman) and Ramón Fonseca (Banderas). She soon learns that her minor predicament is only a drop in the bucket of millions of files linking an off-shore tax scheme to the world's richest and most powerful political leaders.
Mossack Fonseca tried to stop film’s release over lawyers’ portrayal but Netflix says reputations ‘long sullied’
Mossack and Fonseca sued Netflix this week alleging that the film portrayed them as “ruthless uncaring lawyers who are involved in money laundering, tax evasion, bribery and/or other criminal conduct” and sought a court ruling preventing the film being released.
Mossack Fonseca shut down in March last year, two years after the release of the Panama Papers thrust the affairs of their clients onto front pages around the world.
The 11.5m documents in the cache named a large number of rich and powerful people, sparking investigations around the world.
In addition to the Panamanian charges against Mossack and Fonseca, which they are fighting, four men associated with the firm have been charged with tax crimes in the US.
The Panama Papers were leaked by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and provided details of how the wealthy and powerful used the law firm to escape scrutiny.
The film is based on the book “The Secrecy World” by Jake Bernstein, senior reporter on the team that broke the Off Shore Corporate (money laundering and tax avoidance) services, started in panama and inherited after the arrest of Manuel Noriega to other jurisdictions. The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 1, 2019, before being released for digital streaming on October 18, 2019, by Netflix.