The Panamanian law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers scandal has announced it will close, citing reputational damage from the ‘media campaign’ that resulted from a huge leak of its files. Mossack Fonseca said it will shut its offices by the end of the month.

Around 11.5 million files held by the firm were leaked in 2016 revealing the offshore financial activities of some of the world’s most powerful people.

In a statement obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) the firm said: ‘The reputational deterioration, the media campaign, the financial siege and the irregular actions of some Panamanian authorities have caused irreparable damage, whose obligatory consequence is the total cessation of operations to the public.’

More than 400 journalists from 80 countries have published hundreds of stories since the first wave of revelations.

The firm was founded in 1977 by the German lawyer Jürgen Mossack and at the time of the scandal was the world’s fourth-biggest provider of offshore services. Mossack was joined by the Panamanian lawyer Ramón Fonseca. A third director, the Swiss lawyer Christoph Zollinger, was later added.

A small section of staff will remain in order to comply with requests from authorities and other public and private groups, the firm said.