According to Foreign Agents Registration Act documents filed on October 4, the Embassy of Panama has hired Bellwether to represent the Panamanian government as it mounts a global communications response to the “Panama Papers” scandal, the media-dubbed nickname given to the leaked cache of 11.5 million documents belonging to Panama City-based law and corporate services firm Mossack Fonseca, which specializes in helping foreign clients establish offshore shell companies, some of which were created to hide assets and evade taxes.

Called the largest leak in whistleblower history, a coalition of more than 100 media outlets working in conjunction with Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released four decades’ worth of Mossack Fonseca’s data in April, originally leaked by an anonymous informant to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. That data dump included more than 210,000 offshore shell companies belonging to owners living in more than 200 countries. Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson and associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin were among the account owners named.

Responding to the scandal, Panama President Juan Carlos Varela in April said his government had “zero tolerance” for illicit financial activities. The Panamanian government has long rejected its characterization as a tax haven.

Bellwether’s work for the Government of Panama will include communication activities with news organizations and civil society organizations such as trade groups and think tanks. The agency will also write press releases, provide crisis services and act as a strategy planner for the government’s communication activities. Bellwether will report directly to the Office of the President of the Republic of Panama in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Panama in the United States.

Bellwether will be paid a monthly sum of $50,000 for the work. Services will be provided by Bellwether Strategies president Mike Holtzman, a former Weber Shandwick and Brown Lloyd James executive, along with a team based in Washington, New York, London, Paris and Geneva.