I had one of these accounts when I lived/worked overseas. It wasn't with Mossack, but another company that does the same thing.

What it allowed me to do was create a savings account for myself that was not beholden to the vagaries of any one government and their policies. As an American, living in Hungary, working for companies in the EU, the Balkans, Britain, and Hungary, this greatly simplified things for me. I could just transfer money into that account from my bank, and the money was safe and accessible any time I wanted to.

I was also able to diversify my investment in markets beyond what the limited American system would allow. I could invest in riskier investments than the American banking system would allow, if I wanted to. (I made ~20% return on one of these investments, so, yay!)

But the way the account worked also opened it up for possible abuse.

Sure, if I had been a drug or arms dealer, I could have passed my money through a couple of these accounts and investments and washed it clean. And no doubt there were people who did this.

What's going to happen - and is already happening here in this thread - is that anyone with one of these accounts is going to be painted with the "nefarious nogoodnik" brush, regardless of whether they are using their accounts for evil or not.

Mossack Fonseca provided a financial service. Some people abused it, some used it responsibly. Please remember that as this story unfolds, and millions of legitimate people get tarred and feathered by internet wannabe do-gooder vigilantes.