In addition to public officials and billionaires, more than 500 global banks, their subsidiaries and branches, have registered at least 15,600 shell companies there using not (Panama City lawfirm) MF’s services. That word “shell” is descriptively accurate since such “companies” rarely have employees and are commonly no more than a post-office box providing a façade through which books can be doctored, taxes dodged, losses concealed, and money-laundering and other criminal actions carried out.