90% of NZ Lawyers Linked to Panama Papers Still Practicing

Back in 2016, the Panama Papers ripped the veil off New Zealand’s squeaky-clean image, exposing our foreign trust regime as a playground for tax dodgers and money launderers. The leak of 11.5 million documents from Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm, revealed how Kiwi lawyers facilitated secretive trusts for the global elite, some linked to fraud, corruption, and tax evasion.

Fast forward to 2025, and an estimated 45 of the 50 NZ lawyers implicated in the Panama Papers are still practicing, thumbing their noses at accountability. It’s a bloody disgrace, and these legal enablers should be struck off without further delay.

The Panama Papers showed NZ’s foreign trusts, numbering at the time around 11,500 before the leaks, were a magnet for shady characters. From Maltese ministers to Malaysian 1MDB crooks, trusts like the Rotorua Trust and Abbotsford Trust hid assets from tax authorities and accountability.

Lawyers from firms like Cone Marshall, Anchor Trustees, Asiaciti Trust, Bentleys New Zealand, and Staples Rodway were knee-deep in this muck. Named individuals such as Roger Thompson, Karen Marshall, John W. Hart, Michael Reynolds, Nicholas Shepherd, and Geoffrey Cone, played starring roles, setting up trusts or advising Mossack Fonseca on NZ’s lax rules.

Roger Thompson

In fact Named individuals like Roger Thompson, Karen Marshall, John W. Hart, Michael Reynolds, and Nicholas Shepherd, and those implicated like John Key's lawyer Geoffrey Cone, played starring roles, setting up trusts or advising Mossack Fonseca on NZ’s lax rules.

Thompson, Bentleys’ bigwig, appeared in over 4,500 documents, while Marshall’s Cone Marshall managed trusts for dodgy players like Brazilian politician Eduardo Cunha. Hart vouched for Reynolds and Shepherd, who ran Anchor Trustees’ dealings with Mossack Fonseca. These weren’t bit players; they were architects of the widespread laundering of dirty money.

Karen Marshall

The Shewan Inquiry in 2016 admitted some trusts likely enabled tax abuse, though it found no “direct evidence” of illicit funds. They obviously didn’t dig very deeply. The inquiry’s soft touch ignored cases like the 1MDB scandal, where NZ trusts held assets from a billion-dollar fraud, or the Maltese trusts shielding ministers’ wealth.

The problem; NZ’s pre-2017 rules let them hide "settlors and beneficiaries" cash, no questions asked. Staples Rodway even bragged to Mossack Fonseca about NZ’s loose “beneficial owner” definitions, making trust setups a breeze for tax evaders.

 

In 2016, RNZ reported:

Key responds to Panama Papers source

The anonymous leaker of the Panama Papers is confused about the New Zealand Prime Minister's responsibilities, John Key says.

Mr Key has responded to a claim by the leaker of the Panama Papers that he had been "curiously quiet" about New Zealand's role in enabling the "financial fraud Mecca" of the Cook Islands.

Watch John Key respond to claims made about him by the leaker of the Panama Papers.

The source of the leak, "John Doe", has made an 1800-word statement in which he was critical of official reactions to the leak, calling on Britain, the United States and the European Community to take "swift action" - though their leaders are not named.

Speaking in Auckland this afternoon, Mr Key said he had no responsibilities for tax jurisdiction in the Cook Islands.

"I have as much responsibility for tax in the Cook Islands as I do for Russia," said Mr Key.

Mr Key said New Zealand did try to support best tax practice by the Cook Islands government, and had sent officials to help, but the government there ultimately made its own decisions.

Mr Key said the leaker may be confused about the extent of New Zealand involvement because the Cook Islands use New Zealand dollars. But he said in the international media, New Zealand's involvement in the Panama Papers was barely a footnote.

John W. Hart

Post-Panama, John Key attempted and failed to downplay New Zealand’s roll in the extensive tax evasion outlined in the Panama Papers. It took a change of government before anything was done, with Labour mandating trust registration in 2017 and extending AML/CFT rules to lawyers in 2018.

Foreign trusts plummeted by 75–80% to under 3,000, proving many were extremely dodgy. Yet, no lawyers faced the chop.

The NZ Law Society (NZLS) and Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal (LCDT) sat on their hands, hoping the scandal would blow over and letting Thompson, Marshall, Hart, and others escape any fallout.

Ken Whitney

Their actions were supposedly “legal” under New Zealand’s old rules. But that’s a complete cop-out. The UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime prohibits the type of money laundering outlined in the Panama Papers. These lawyers clearly profited from a system slammed globally as a tax haven, which hid ill-gotten gains and undermined NZ’s integrity.

Today, an estimated 45 of these 50 lawyers are still practicing without any proper oversight. Firms like Cone Marshall and Staples Rodway hum along, while Thompson’s Bentleys remains Mossack Fonseca’s NZ office. No suspensions, no strike-offs, no accountability.

Geoffrey Cone

The NZLS’s continued silence is deafening, and the public’s left largely in the dark wondering why legal ethics seem optional for lawyers? These dishonest people enabled global fraudsters, from Cunha to 1MDB looters, and their continued practice mocks our political and justice systems.

It’s time to clean house. The NZLS must properly investigate Panama Papers-linked lawyers, starting with Thompson, Marshall, Hart, Reynolds, and Shepherd, whose ties to Mossack Fonseca are undeniable.

In my opinion, Parliament should further tighten the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act to bar enablers of financial crime. NZ’s reputation took a hit; but we shouldn’t let 45 lawyers waltz free after they have spit in the face of good practice and undermined the integrity of our great country.