LAWYERS representing different suspects in the money laundering investigation  of Panama law firm Mossac Fonseca (MF),  have clashed over the status  of the office carrying its name in Brazil and  headed by attorney María Mercedes Riaño.

Marlene Guerra, part of the legal  team of Edinson Teano, a lawyer of the firm claims that the Brazil operation was a franchise and operating independently.

Her client, Teano along with the founding partners Ramon Fonseca Mora and Jürgen Mossack, is being investigated for money laundering.

Guerra, went on Thursday  yesterday to the office of the Second Prosecutor against Organized Crime and said that the firm in Brazil and Panama are two different companies. The one in Brazil, she

said, operated as a franchise.

However, Riaño's defense, headed by attorney Aura Emérita Guerra de Villalaz, said that "she

was a representative of Mossack Fonseca in Brazil" and that, in fact, "there is a contract that

says it very accurately."

Teano's lawyer said she will present evidence before the prosecution to prove her arguments.

The allegation expressed by Guerra has also been raised by Fonseca's lawyers, who along with Mossack, Teano and Riaño are detained as part of this case.

They are all  being investigated for money laundering due to their alleged use of offshore companies to hide bribes paid to dignitaries of the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras, labeled the Lava Jato scandal.