Panama and the US FATF "Gray List", Money Laundering and Anti-Laundering Operations and Agreements, Illicit "Black Money"

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Panama fights to shed tax haven image

Posted 29/11/2019

Panama’s mission to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in  Paris to try to dispel images of the country as a tax haven, ended on Friday, November 29.

  The team headed by  The Minister of Economy and Finance (MEF), Héctor Alexander, closed the foray with a presentation to FATF executive secretary David Lewis, outlining the progress of the Panamanian Government in terms of stability and transparency to attract investments to the country.

Alexander said he is working with “the World Bank and the Banking Association of Panama. He also explained that in Panama the issues are reviewed weekly with a special follow-up work team. “Specific tasks were also being undertaken to address certain deficiencies detected in the implementation of anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing measures and thus avoid being blacklisted." said a FATF statement.

On Wednesday this week, Panama and France signed “a declaration of intentions regarding the creation of a working group on cooperation in fiscal transparency,” said a statement from the MEF.

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/business/panama-fights-to-shed-tax-haven-image

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Legislative Endorsement for Anti-Money Laundering Law

The National Assembly of Panama approved in third debate the bill that creates the Superintendence of Non-Financial Subjects, and now the proposal only awaits the approval of the Executive.

Thursday, December 5, 2019

The bill, which was sent by the Executive Branch to be analyzed in extraordinary sessions and which seeks to establish the exclusive competence to regulate and supervise non-financial regulated entities administratively with the aim of preventing money laundering, the financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, has already passed the procedure in the National Assembly.

The new Superintendence will have autonomy with legal personality, its own patrimony and administrative independence, and its structure includes a director, a deputy director and a Board of Directors made up of representatives from the governmental and private sectors.

The Assembly statement explains that "... the approved document regulates the career of public servants in the superintendence of non-financial subjects, as well as the sanctions that will be imposed on those who violate this law.
 
This entity, as provided in the bill, will coordinate with the Financial Analysis Unit to prevent money laundering, terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."

 

https://www.centralamericadata.com/en/article/main/Legislative_Endorsement_for_AntiMoney_Laundering_Law

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Panama suspends 381,000 corporations

Alexjadro Rojas

Posted 23/12/2019

As part of the fight against money laundering, the Panama Government has ordered the suspension of 381,000 registered corporations for not complying with the requirements established by law sys  The Ministerial adviser of facilitation of private investment, José Alejandro Rojas.

Law 52 of 2016 empowers the Public Registry to suspend the corporate rights of legal persons (such as corporations) for remaining without designating a resident agent, for not paying the single fee for three years or for being delinquent in paying fines

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/business/panama-suspends-381000-corporations

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Panama moves forward with beneficial owner register

10 January 2020

Panama's National Assembly of Panama has approved a Bill that will create a register of beneficial owners of legal entities in the country at the centre of the biggest offshore scandal in history.

Under the Bill, resident agents will be required to file relevant information on all Panama-incorporated legal entities for which they are acting. All legal entities incorporated in Panama must appoint a Panamanian lawyer or law firm as their resident agent.

The jurisdiction's current beneficial ownership regime only requires resident agents to perform due-diligence on their client entities' ultimate beneficial owners. This information will now be collected on the register, under the control of the Superintendence of Non-Financial Institutions.

The Panama Papers investigation, led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, provoked a global scandal in 2016 by revealing how certain rich and powerful figures use anonymous, offshore corporations to hide their money and evade tax.

In response, nations around the world pledged to shine a light on individuals who secretly control such corporations.

In June 2019, the global Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed Panama back on its grey list of monitored countries, citing strategic anti-money laundering deficiencies, resulting in the Panamanian authorities agreeing to step up efforts to combat money laundering.

The new Bill requires resident agents to register with the Superintendence and submit the required information within 30 business days of the company being incorporated or of being appointed as its agent. A grandfathering clause grants resident agents of existing companies six months to register and obtain the required information. An agent that fails to do this will be required to re-sign as the entity's resident agent.

A legal entity whose resident agent has not registered with the Superintendence will be suspended from the Panamanian Public Registry, and will be removed after failing to file for two years.

The bill would sanction resident agents with fines from US$1,000 to US$5,000 for each legal entity whose information is not registered or updated in the beneficial owner register. For each day, the registration or update is not completed, the bill would impose progressive fines on 10% of the fine previously imposed, up to a maximum of six months. If false information is provided or filed in the beneficial owner register, the bill would impose additional sanctions, according to a report by EY.

 

https://www.internationalinvestment.net/news/4008946/panama-moves-forward-beneficial-owner-register

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Registration of Corporations Still Rising

In Panama, during the first eleven months of 2019, 12,763 corporations were registered in the country, 4% more than those reported in the same period of 2018.

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

The last report of the General Comptroller of the Republic details that between January and November 2018 and the same period in 2019, the number of corporations registered in the country increased from 12,272 to 12,763.

Regarding dissolved corporations, it reported a drop for the periods in question, from 6,935 in 2018 to 5,362 in 2019, which is equivalent to a reduction of 23%.

In the case of merged companies, there was also a decrease of 14%, from 300 in the first eleven months of 2018 to 258 in the same period this year.

See full statistics.

 

https://www.centralamericadata.com/en/article/main/Registration_of_Corporations_Still_Rising

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Endorsement to Final Beneficiary Registry

The Assembly of Panama approved in third debate the draft law that creates the private and unique system of registration of final beneficiaries of legal entities.

Friday, February 21, 2020

Chapter II of the document, on Registration of Resident Agents, stipulates that any lawyer or law firm providing professional services as a resident agent for one or more legal persons, constituted or registered in the country, must register and keep in force their registration with the Superintendency of Non-Financial Subjects, the Legislative Assembly informed.

The statement dated February 20, specifies that the regulations creating the private and unique system of registration of final beneficiaries of legal entities to prevent crimes of organized crime and that it perfects the laws of transparency endorsing the position of Panama to get out of the gray list.

"This legislation, which was objected to by the Executive in five of its articles, was approved in order to facilitate access to the final beneficiaries of legal persons obtained from lawyers or law firms, who provide services as resident agents, to prevent the crimes of money laundering, financing of terrorism and financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Panama," the document explains.

 

https://www.centralamericadata.com/en/article/main/Endorsement_to_Final_Beneficiary_Registry

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Registration of Corporations up 5% in 2019

In Panama, 13,775 corporations were registered in the country during 2019, 4.6% more than those reported in 2018.

Friday, February 28, 2020

The most recent figures from the Office of the General Comptroller of the Republic detail that between 2018 and 2019, the number of corporations registered in the country grew by 4.6%, from 13,171 to 13,775.

Regarding dissolved corporations, it reported a drop for the years in question, from 7,760 in 2018 to 6,162 in 2019, equivalent to a reduction of 21%. In the case of merged companies, there was also a decrease of 15%, from 353 to 299.

Daisy Chacón, a lawyer specializing in money laundering prevention, told Laestrella.com.pa that despite "... all the sanctions imposed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the European Union (EU) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 'Panama is still the right choice for foreign investors in terms of asset protection and planning'."
 
See full statistics (in Spanish).

Source: laestrella.com.pa

 

https://www.centralamericadata.com/en/article/main/Registration_of_Corporations_up_5_in_2019

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Prosecutors seize  cars worth nearly $1 million from luxury mansion

Posted 04/03/2020

Police and organized crime prosecutors   moved into The exclusive residential sector of Santa María, in Juan Díaz, on Tuesday morning, February 4, and searched  a mansion before seizing nine luxury  cars  valued at $987,320.51

According to the National Police Twitter account, the raid was related to an investigation of alleged money laundering by a citizen of Mexican nationality.

The seized cars were taken to the Public Prosecutor's Courtyards, where they should remain for the duration of the investigations in this case, which according to the authorities will bring more proceedings related to apprehension of assets in the coming days.

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/prosecutors-seize-cars-worth-nearly-1-million-from-luxury-mansion

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Panama and US sign money laundering  task force agreement

Posted 14/08/2020

Panama and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding on Friday, August 14 to create a working team both countries against money laundering and corruption.

The two  countries agreed to work together to carry out investigations on money laundering and corruption, not related to drug trafficking, supporting

"This agreement will allow the support of the Panamanian authorities in the identification of the sources of financing of terrorism and other crimes derived from money laundering," said a statement from Panama's  Ministry of Security of Panama.

As part of the agreement, the United States government will provide the task force with certain equipment, resources, training, and specialized knowledge in the field to help fulfill its mission.

The Judicial Investigation Directorate, the Public Ministry, the Financial Analysis Unit, the General Directorate of Revenues, and the Superintendency of Banks of Panama are part of the working group.

“The government of Panama advances a national agenda that entails a commitment to transparency,

the fight against corruption, with the strengthening of our institutions and the effective application of our laws against money laundering and the fight against the financing of terrorism, with the objective of updating our economic and financial system in order to continue promoting foreign investment and consolidate ourselves as the most important financial center in Latin America ”, the statement concludes.

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/business/panama-and-us-sign-money-laundering-task-force-agreement

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OPINION: New Hope with US-Panama Anti-corrution accord

Posted 18/08/2020

The United States and Panama have formed a Task Force against money laundering and corruption. The effort seeks to train and advise prosecutors, investigators, regulators, and other key actors to improve the response in the fight against two very serious crimes. With the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Panama has an opportunity to change the trajectory of criminal justice and financial oversight for the better.

Although these measures are aimed at fulfilling the commitments with the Financial Action Task Force, the big winners will be Panamanians. Bribes to obtain public contracts, the concealment of dirty money, and the existence of organized networks that facilitate these behaviors are the enemy that the Task Force seeks to combat.

 This initiative strengthens our sovereignty against organized crime and drug trafficking. Only in this way will we avoid the rocky path of a failed state. The corrupt political class, judges and prosecutors must understand that the times of impunity are over. It is time for a system that guarantees the certainty of punishment. Whoever that strikes. LA PRENSA, Aug, 18

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/opinion/opinion-new-hope-with-us-panama-anti-corrution-accord

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Toxic transaction probes label vPanama  “high risk jurisdiction”

Posted 21/09/2020

Billions of dollars of toxic transactions passed through several of the world's leading banks for individuals and companies targeted for massive looting of public funds, ignoring measures to combat money laundering with impunity says the US Treasury.

More than 2,100 reports of suspicious activities of banks and financial are revealed by  the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) which labels Panama a “high-risk jurisdiction”

The agency analyzes financial transaction information to fight crimes, such as fraud, money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

The documents, prepared by financial entities in the United States that provide the intermediation service for financial institutions around the world in the event of potentially suspicious activities, were analyzed for 16 months by about 400 journalists from about 110 media outlets in 88 countries, the product of a leak. obtained by BuzzFeed News, and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), based in the United States.

The international journalistic investigation - known as FinCen Files - shows, exclusively, the opacity with which some international banking systems are handled, the existence of anonymous clients and elements of conviction of alleged financial crimes, and that, despite the fines imposed, many banks play a fundamental role in the movement of money resulting from political corruption and organized crime.

Because of  anonymous banking clients, several FinCen reports on suspicious activities (SAR,) describe Panama as a "high-risk jurisdiction for money laundering and financial crimes." In the reports, there are red alerts for suspicious banking transactions in the local bank. They also warn that it is common in Panamanian entities that the final beneficiaries of the money are unknown.

For example, the Bank of New York (BNY) reveals in a report to FinCen 986 suspicious transactions: “Many of the transfers were sent from, through or to jurisdictions that have been determined as having a high risk of money laundering. and other financial crimes, such as Panama, Latvia, Ukraine, Cyprus, Marshall Islands, British Virgin Islands (BVI) and  Russia”, a description that is repeated in other SARs that also highlight, for example, the existence of companies created by the defunct firm Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

In the leaked documents, in addition to describing the Panamanian jurisdiction as “risky”, mentions are made of companies linked to the Waked family, which have been the subject of local and foreign publications in the recent past.

In addition, suspicious reports were found from a transnational with operations in Panama. reports La Prensa  which is still probing.

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/business/toxic-transaction-probes-label-vpanama-high-risk-jurisdiction

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Panama fingered in US  Treasury laundering  revelations

Posted 22/09/2020

Buzzfeed News has expanded coverage of tthe FinCEN Files investigation —based, in part, on thousands of secret US Treasury Department documents and in revelations of the activities of HSBC  points another finger at Panama.

After an earlier massive fine imposed on HSBC and a monitoring agreement “The inside tale of what happened at HSBC, told here for the first time, underscores how toothless deferred prosecution agreements really are” says Buzzfeed.

“The records show that the bank continued to do business with companies that its own employees raised red flags about.

“Vida Panamá, owned by Panama’s powerful Waked family, used the bank to exchange $292 million in suspicious transactions before the Treasury Department declared it a money-laundering organization that washed funds for narco kingpins. An attorney for the family, Yasser Williams, told BuzzFeed News the business was legitimate, and the Wakeds plan to fight Treasury’s designation.

A Turkish financial consultant made 124 suspicious transactions in 2015 and 2016, including a wire transfer to a California electronics company accused by the Justice Department of laundering cash for the Norte del Valle drug cartel. The California company did not respond to a detailed message.

And the bank flouted Treasury Department guidelines by doing business with financial institutions in Transnistria, a breakaway republic in Moldova known as a haven for financial crime.

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/business/panama-fingered-in-us-treasury-laundering-revelations-1

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Moderator comment: The below news article is one example of money laundering activity that causes the FATF to continue watching Panama.

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Chavismo INC.: 30 mil millones de dólares estarían relacionados con operaciones de lavado de dinero

Por CONNECTAS
22 sep 2020 - 02:30 PM

La pareja presidencial de Nicaragua rinde homenaje a Hugo Chávez en Managua en una rotonda cercana al Ejército y la vicepresidencia. |Foto: O. Enríquez)

Los engranajes del capitalismo bolivariano: revelación sobre el flujo de más de 30 mil millones de dólares originados del erario venezolano y que han abultado el bolsillo de unos pocos alrededor del mundo.

De un departamento en un ostentoso rascacielos de la “avenida de los millonarios” en Manhattan, Estados Unidos, a casas de fantasía en la paradisíaca Marbella, en España. Desde inversiones en exclusivos proyectos turísticos del Caribe como Punta Cana, República Dominicana, a emprendimientos con presupuestos de ensueño en El Salvador.

Desde complejas tramas empresariales tejidas en Panamá conectadas con abultadas cuentas bancarias en el mundo hasta compañías en Argentina o Uruguay que casi sin capital saltaron de hacer negocios más que discretos a simplemente multimillonarios.

De la construcción fallida de una megarefinería petrolera en Nicaragua a la calculada compra de un gigante agroindustrial de Bolivia.

Todo eso ha estado asociado a una fuente común: los flujos millonarios de petrodólares que salieron del erario de la Venezuela gobernada por Hugo Chávez y Nicolás Maduro en los últimos 20 años.

De eso trata Chavismo INC., una investigación colaborativa que evidencia un entramado de negocios que abultaron los bolsillos de unos pocos que ahora se establecen en diversos rincones del mundo, en una diáspora que da cuenta de la proyección internacional del caso venezolano, a través de una serie de reportajes que abarcan una decena de países.

Este proyecto, realizado por Transparencia Venezuela, la Alianza Rebelde Investiga (ARI) y la plataforma latinoamericana de periodismo Connectas, se apoyó en las pesquisas oficiales realizadas por autoridades como fiscalías, juzgados y parlamentos, entre otros documentos, en 21 naciones, para contar el trasegar y destino de dineros que en algunas oportunidades se lograron gracias a la cercanía con el poder, mediante acuerdos ventajosos, engañosos, fraudulentos, o en otras simplemente fueron fruto de sofisticados esquemas que facilitaron que se exprimiera un patrimonio, dejando empobrecida, con hambre y graves deficiencias humanitarias, a la otrora prospera nación petrolera que aún conserva las más grandes reservas de crudo en el mundo.

INVESTIGACIONES

Fuera de Venezuela han abierto al menos 86 investigaciones. En 52 de estos expedientes se sigue la pista a más de 30 mil millones de dólares que estarían relacionados con operaciones de lavado de activos, de acuerdo con la información recopilada por Chavismo INC.

La cifra supera casi seis veces las reservas internacionales según datos del Banco Central de Venezuela divulgados en enero de 2020. Sin embargo, es una fracción frente a los ingresos recibidos gracias a un boom petrolero que le reportó al Estado, que maneja el monopolio de la industria petrolera, ingresos fiscales calculados en aproximadamente un millón de millones de dólares en una década, que parecieron evaporarse mientras las instituciones controladas por el chavismo desde hace 20 años apenas han hecho esfuerzos por recuperarlos e investigar las denuncias asociadas a cada centavo.

El retrato se deriva de una base de datos elaborada por Chavismo INC., y abierta al público con la entrega de este trabajo, que plasma un ejercicio de rastreo de 5,000 personas y entidades que han estado relacionadas directa o indirectamente con fondos venezolanos.

Esa búsqueda arrojó un inventario consolidado de 751 agentes de interés por sus conexiones con negocios de los gobiernos del chavismo. Contratistas con acceso al poder, exaltos funcionarios e intermediarios con contactos privilegiados han sido vinculados con más de 3,919 interacciones con sus entornos.

En países como Panamá, una de las encrucijadas financieras del mundo por sus facilidades, se calcula que clientes venezolanos habían inyectado al sistema bancario más de 2,800 millones de dólares hasta 2019.

El expresidente mexicano Vicente Fox acuñó en su momento una frase que dio una clave para entender el fenómeno: “El mejor ministro de Economía que ha tenido Panamá es Hugo Chávez”.

Fue justamente en ese país donde un banquero alemán tejió las complejas madejas de uno de los mayores esquemas de lavado de dinero procedente de Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (Pdvsa), por 1,200 millones de dólares, y el cual involucró según las investigaciones, desde familiares de Cilia Flores, esposa de Maduro y “primera combatiente” de Venezuela, a exfuncionarios y jóvenes contratistas.

Como se acredita en Chavismo INC., nombres pesados del poder, de las contrataciones públicas y de las fórmulas del desfalco tuvieron empresas en el istmo. (Lea aquí).

 

También las tuvieron en otras latitudes donde se destinaron masivas migraciones de fondos captados, en muchos casos, por el mercado inmobiliario. Estados Unidos es paradójicamente el país donde se han realizado mayor cantidad de investigaciones judiciales y donde se ha hecho seguimiento más estricto del dinero, pero también donde flujos millonarios de fortunas venezolanas se relacionaron con negocios a través de empresas creadas solo para hacer transacciones inmobiliarias.

Una postal, investigada para este trabajo, es la del departamento de 17 millones de dólares propiedad de la familia de un excontratista petrolero, condenado por la justicia estadounidense por su conexión con legitimación de capitales, en el rascacielo One57, ubicado en una de zona reservada para magnates en Nueva York. (Lea aquí).

Algo semejante ocurrió en España, que ha sido receptora de fondos de figuras mencionadas en casos investigados internacionalmente y que terminaron con propiedades en barrios madrileños como La Moraleja y Salamanca que, según la agencia tributaria española, están entre los diez que concentran los habitantes con mayores ingresos pér capita del país europeo.

Uno de ellos fue un exfuncionario relacionado con el estratégico sector de la energía investigado en cuatro países. Solo en un caso se le atribuyen movimientos sospechosos por más de 54 millones de dólares.

En Madrid, compró departamentos para sí mismo y para otros familiares. Un joven empresario, igualmente bajo la lupa de la justicia, terminó haciéndose de una finca de casi 23 millones de euros, promueve inversiones en startups con reputación mundial y ha llegado a codearse con lo más alto de la élite española. (Lea aquí).

La asimilación con familias tradicionales también ocurrió en lugares paradisíacos como República Dominicana, donde un clan de excontratistas de Pdvsa, algunos de ellos solicitados por la justicia venezolana, logró colarse entre los grupos asociados al competido negocio turístico, en el que no cualquiera tiene luz verde.

Según Chavismo INC., los empresarios forman parte del grupo promotor del proyecto del Downtown Punta Cana, un desarrollo de más de 150 mil metros cuadrados que busca llevar a un destino dorado y consolidado del Caribe al siguiente nivel. ¿El costo estimado del desarrollo? Aproximadamente 100 millones de dólares.

El combustible de los negocios en otros países estuvo asociado a las oportunidades que surgieron con los acuerdos petroleros tallados desde Venezuela con socios estratégicos.

En la Bolivia de Evo Morales, un hombre que fue diputado del partido del presidente se convirtió en dueño de un complejo agroindustrial que ha exportado más de mil millones de dólares en la última década, gracias a una operación con fondos venezolanos.

Ahora investigado por supuesto lavado del dinero, el exparlamentario ayudó a disimular el control que han ejercido con discreción los gobiernos de Chávez y Maduro sobre un activo casi desconocido en Venezuela. (Lea aquí).

En El Salvador del Frente Farabundo Martí de Liberación Nacional (FMLN), se tejió una compleja red de empresas beneficiarias de préstamos originados en la cooperación venezolana: casi 100 millones de dólares de esos financiamientos fueron a una aerolínea que quebró luego de apenas dos años de operación y que tenía entre sus directivos a un venezolano contratista de Pdvsa. (Lea aquí).

En la Nicaragua de Daniel Ortega, fluyeron más de 3,700 millones de dólares en créditos petroleros que fueron gestionados a discreción por la familia presidencial. Un proyecto fallido de una megarefinería igual dio oportunidades de negocios a empresas acusadas de sobornar a funcionarios de Pdvsa en otros casos. (Lea aquí).

En la Argentina de los Kichnner, han sido identificadas ventas con sobreprecio por más de 234 millones de dólares, entre ellas de un empresario que multiplicó su patrimonio notoriamente gracias a los negocios en Venezuela. Los jueces locales abrieron una decena de causas que languidecen, según afirman por falta de cooperación de las autoridades venezolanas. (Lea aquí).

Esto ya ocurrió que en el Uruguay de José Mujica y Tabaré Vásquez: fueron desechadas dos investigaciones judiciales que pretendían revelar cómo funcionaban las redes de contactos para hacer negocios con el gobierno venezolano, plagados de denuncias por supuesta corrupción. (Lea aquí).

Lo excepcional en el mundo han sido precisamente las condenas firmes. Lo común, los esquemas de cobro de sobornos millonarios y la legitimación de capitales asociados principalmente a Pdvsa, la exprimida gallina de los huevos de oro, según esta investigación que sumó esfuerzos de una veintena de periodistas. (Lea aquí).

Chavismo INC. continuará con el desarrollo de una interfase, bautizada como Corruptómetro, que pronto propondrá a los lectores un examen de las indagaciones de entidades venezolanas como el Ministerio Público, la Contraloría General de la República y la Asamblea Nacional, que cuantificará los montos comprometidos por la corrupción venezolana y hará un recorrido por casos emblemáticos.

La bonanza que trajo la época en la que el barril de petroleo fluctuaba sobre los 100 dólares buscó expandir el socialismo bolivariano.

Miles de millones se fueron en supuestos esquemas de cooperación, que en varios países se tradujo en corrupción y en castas que se enquistaron en el poder. Para el bolsillo de muchos, como lo presenta Chavismo INC., el socialismo se tradujo, en la práctica, en la mejor muestra de capitalismo bolivariano en el mundo.

*La inclusión de personas, empresas u otras entidades en la base de datos del especial, no pretende sugerir ni dar a entender que hayan infringido la ley o hayan actuado de forma inapropiada. De apreciar un error en el contenido, por favor contáctenos aquí.

 

Moderator comment: Below is an unedited automated translation of the above news article.

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Chavismo INC .: 30 billion dollars would be related to money laundering operations

By CONNECTAS
22 Sep 2020 - 02:30 PM

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The Nicaraguan presidential couple pays tribute to Hugo Chávez in Managua in a roundabout near the Army and the vice presidency. | Photo: O. Enríquez)

The gears of Bolivarian capitalism: revelation about the flow of more than 30 billion dollars originating from the Venezuelan treasury and that have swelled the pockets of a few around the world.

From an apartment in an ostentatious skyscraper on the "avenue of millionaires" in Manhattan, United States, to fantasy houses in the paradisiacal Marbella, in Spain. From investments in exclusive tourism projects in the Caribbean such as Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, to undertakings with dream budgets in El Salvador.

From complex business networks woven in Panama connected to bulging bank accounts in the world to companies in Argentina or Uruguay that with almost no capital jumped from doing more than discreet businesses to simply billionaires.

From the failed construction of an oil megarefinery in Nicaragua to the calculated purchase of a Bolivian agro-industrial giant.

All of this has been associated with a common source: the millionaire flows of petrodollars that came out of the treasury of Venezuela governed by Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro in the last 20 years.

That is what Chavismo INC. Is about, a collaborative investigation that shows a network of businesses that pumped the pockets of a few that now settle in different corners of the world, in a diaspora that accounts for the international projection of the Venezuelan case, through a series of reports covering a dozen countries.

This project, carried out by Transparencia Venezuela, the Alianza Rebelde Investiga (ARI) and the Latin American journalism platform Connectas, relied on official inquiries carried out by authorities such as prosecutors, courts and parliaments, among other documents, in 21 nations, to tell the transfer and destination of money that in some opportunities were achieved thanks to the proximity to power, through advantageous, deceptive, fraudulent agreements, or in others they were simply the result of sophisticated schemes that facilitated the squeeze of a heritage, leaving impoverished, hungry and serious humanitarian deficiencies, to the once prosperous oil nation that still has the largest oil reserves in the world.

RESEARCH

Outside of Venezuela they have opened at least 86 investigations. In 52 of these files, more than 30 billion dollars that would be related to money laundering operations are tracked, according to the information compiled by Chavismo INC.

The figure exceeds international reserves almost six times according to data from the Central Bank of Venezuela released in January 2020. However, it is a fraction compared to the income received thanks to an oil boom reported to the State, which manages the monopoly of the oil industry, tax revenues estimated at approximately one million million dollars in a decade, which seemed to evaporate while the institutions controlled by Chavismo for 20 years have barely made efforts to recover them and investigate the complaints associated with every penny.

The portrait is derived from a database prepared by Chavismo INC., And open to the public with the delivery of this work, which reflects an exercise of tracking 5,000 people and entities that have been directly or indirectly related to Venezuelan funds.

That search yielded a consolidated inventory of 751 agents of interest due to their connections with businesses of the Chavismo governments. Contractors with access to power, exalted officials and intermediaries with privileged contacts have been linked to more than 3,919 interactions with their environments.

In countries like Panama, one of the world's financial crossroads due to its facilities, it is estimated that Venezuelan clients had injected more than 2,800 million dollars into the banking system until 2019.

Former Mexican president Vicente Fox coined a phrase at the time that gave a key to understanding the phenomenon: "The best Minister of Economy that Panama has had is Hugo Chávez."

It was precisely in that country where a German banker wove the complex skeins of one of the largest money laundering schemes from Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), for 1,200 million dollars, and which according to the investigations involved, from relatives of Cilia Flores, Maduro's wife and "first combatant" of Venezuela, to former officials and young contractors.

As accredited by Chavismo INC., Heavy names in power, public contracting and embezzlement formulas had companies in the isthmus. (Read here).

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They also had them in other latitudes where massive migrations of funds captured, in many cases, by the real estate market were destined. The United States is paradoxically the country where the greatest number of judicial investigations have been carried out and where the money has been more strictly monitored, but also where millionaire flows of Venezuelan fortunes were related to businesses through companies created only to carry out real estate transactions.

A postcard, investigated for this work, is that of the 17 million dollar department owned by the family of a former oil contractor, condemned by the US justice for its connection with money laundering, in the One57 skyscraper, located in a reserved area for tycoons in New York. (Read here).

Something similar happened in Spain, which has been the recipient of funds from figures mentioned in internationally investigated cases that ended up with properties in Madrid neighborhoods such as La Moraleja and Salamanca, which, according to the Spanish tax agency, are among the ten that concentrate the inhabitants with the highest per capita income of the European country.

One of them was a former official related to the strategic energy sector investigated in four countries. Only in one case are suspicious movements of more than 54 million dollars attributed to him.

In Madrid, he bought apartments for himself and other relatives. A young businessman, also under the magnifying glass of justice, ended up acquiring a farm of almost 23 million euros, promotes investments in startups with a global reputation and has come to rub shoulders with the highest of the Spanish elite. (Read here).

Assimilation with traditional families also occurred in paradisiacal places such as the Dominican Republic, where a clan of former PDVSA contractors, some of them requested by the Venezuelan justice, managed to sneak among the groups associated with the competitive tourism business, in which not everyone has the green light. .

According to Chavismo INC., The entrepreneurs are part of the promoter group of the Downtown Punta Cana project, a development of more than 150 thousand square meters that seeks to take a golden and consolidated Caribbean destination to the next level. The estimated cost of development? Approximately $ 100 million.

The fuel for business in other countries was associated with the opportunities that arose with the oil agreements carved from Venezuela with strategic partners.

In the Bolivia of Evo Morales, a man who was a deputy for the president's party became the owner of an agro-industrial complex that has exported more than a billion dollars in the last decade, thanks to an operation with Venezuelan funds.

Now under investigation for alleged money laundering, the former parliamentarian helped disguise the control that the Chávez and Maduro governments have exercised with discretion over an almost unknown asset in Venezuela. (Read here).

In El Salvador of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a complex network of companies benefiting from loans originated in Venezuelan cooperation was woven: almost 100 million dollars of these financings went to an airline that went bankrupt after just two years of operation and that it had among its directors a Venezuelan PDVSA contractor. (Read here).

In Daniel Ortega's Nicaragua, more than 3.7 billion dollars in oil loans flowed, which were managed at the discretion of the presidential family. A failed mega-refinery project also provided business opportunities for companies accused of bribing PDVSA officials in other cases. (Read here).

In the Argentina of the Kichnners, overpriced sales of more than 234 million dollars have been identified, among them of a businessman who multiplied his assets notoriously thanks to the business in Venezuela. Local judges opened a dozen cases that are languishing, according to a lack of cooperation from the Venezuelan authorities. (Read here).

This has already happened in the Uruguay of José Mujica and Tabaré Vásquez: two judicial investigations that tried to reveal how the networks of contacts to do business with the Venezuelan government functioned, plagued with complaints of alleged corruption, were rejected. (Read here).

What is exceptional in the world have been precisely the firm sentences. The common, the millionaire bribery collection schemes and the money laundering mainly associated with PDVSA, the squeezed goose that lays the golden eggs, according to this investigation that joined the efforts of a score of journalists. (Read here).

Chavismo INC. will continue with the development of an interface, baptized as Corruptometer, which will soon propose to readers an examination of the inquiries of Venezuelan entities such as the Public Ministry, the Comptroller General of the Republic and the National Assembly, which will quantify the amounts committed by corruption Venezuelan and will take a tour of emblematic cases.

The bonanza brought by the time when a barrel of oil fluctuated over 100 dollars sought to expand Bolivarian socialism.

Billions went to alleged cooperation schemes, which in several countries resulted in corruption and castes that became entrenched in power. For the pockets of many, as presented by Chavismo INC., Socialism was translated, in practice, into the best example of Bolivarian capitalism in the world.

* The inclusion of people, companies or other entities in the database of the special, is not intended to suggest or imply that they have broken the law or have acted inappropriately. If you notice an error in the content, please contact us here.

 

https://www.prensa.com/mundo/chavismo-inc/

[Moderator_02]

Moderator comment: The below news article is another example of money laundering activity that causes the FATF to continue watching Panama.

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Panamá, ‘jurisdicción de riesgo’, según bancos de Estados Unidos

Mary Triny Zea

20 sep 2020 - 02:55 PM

La investigación periodística internacional evidencia, de forma exclusiva, la opacidad con la que se manejan algunos sistemas bancarios internacionales. Ilustración del ICIJ

Multimillonarias transacciones tóxicas pasaron por varios de los principales bancos del mundo para personas y compañías señaladas de saqueos masivos de fondos públicos, ignorando impunemente medidas para combatir lavado de dinero.

Así lo revelan más de 2 mil 100 reportes de actividades sospechosas de bancos e instituciones financieras del mundo para el Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (la Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera) del Departamento del Tesoro de Estados Unidos (conocido por sus siglas FinCen).

Esta agencia analiza información de transacciones financieras para luchar contra los delitos financieros, como fraude, lavado de dinero y la financiación del terrorismo.

Los documentos, elaborados por entidades financieras de Estados Unidos que proporcionan el servicio de intermediación de instituciones financieras alrededor del mundo ante potenciales actividades sospechosas, fueron analizadas durante 16 meses por unos 400 periodistas de unos 110 medios de comunicación en 88 países, producto de una filtración obtenida por el medio digital BuzzFeed News, y que compartió con el Consorcio Internacional de Periodistas de investigación (ICIJ), con sede en Estados Unidos.

BuzzFeed News es un medio que nació en 2012. De acuerdo con su sitio web, es una “una organización mundial de noticias que ofrece informes originales en línea...”. Asegura cubrir “grandes historias que responsabilizan a las principales instituciones por sus acciones y exponemos las injusticias que cambian la vida de las personas, todo ello con un promedio de más de 50 millones de lectores únicos mensuales”.

Por ejemplo, menciona que fue el medio que expuso “el número oculto de muertos en Puerto Rico tras el huracán María; el contenido de explotación en las grandes plataformas tecnológicas y los secretos de los funcionarios gubernamentales desde Londres hasta São Paulo”.

Archivos de la Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera de Estados Unidos (Fincen) demuestran la opacidad con la que se manejan los principales bancos del mundo. Foto de ICIJ

La investigación periodística internacional −denominada FinCen Files− evidencia, de forma exclusiva, la opacidad con la que se manejan algunos sistemas bancarios internacionales, la existencia de clientes anónimos y elementos de convicción de presuntos delitos financieros, y que, pese a las multas impuestas por parte de las autoridades de Estados Unidos, muchos bancos juegan un papel fundamental en el movimiento del dinero producto de la corrupción política y del crimen organizado.

Precisamente, por el tema de los clientes bancarios anónimos, varios reportes del FinCen sobre actividades sospechosas (SAR, por sus siglas en inglés) describen a Panamá como una “jurisdicción de alto riesgo por el lavado de dinero y crímenes financieros”. En los reportes, hay alertas rojas por causa de transacciones bancarias sospechosas en la banca local. Advierten, igualmente que es frecuente en las entidades panameñas que se desconozcan a los beneficiarios finales del dinero.

Por ejemplo, el Bank of New York Mellon (BNY) revela en uno de sus reportes al FinCen 986 transacciones sospechosas: “Muchas de las transferencias fueron enviadas desde, a través de o a jurisdicciones que se ha determinado como de alto riesgo de lavado de dinero y otros delitos financieros, como Letonia, Ucrania, Chipre, Islas Marshall, Islas Vírgenes Británicas (BVI), Rusia y Panamá”, descripción que se repite en otros SAR que también destacan, por ejemplo, la existencia de sociedades creadas por la desaparecida firma panameña de abogados Mossack Fonseca, o datos revelados por ICIJ en investigaciones internacionales publicadas en el pasado.

La Prensa consultó a la Unidad de Análisis Financiero de Panamá (UAF) por la imagen internacional generalizada de Panamá en torno a ser una “jurisdicción riesgosa” y esta respondió −por correo− que “Panamá no es considerado jurisdicción de alto riesgo. Por otro lado, Panamá lleva a cabo un gran esfuerzo interinstitucional para cumplir con el Plan de Acción del Grupo de Acción Financiera Internacional (GAFI)”.

En los documentos filtrados, además de la descripción de la jurisdicción panameña como “riesgosa”, se hacen menciones sobre empresas vinculadas a la familia Waked, que han sido objeto de publicaciones locales y extranjeras en el pasado reciente.

Además, se encontraron reportes sospechosos de una transnacional con operaciones en Panamá. Sin embargo, hasta ahora La Prensa −invitada por la ICIJ a formar parte de esta investigación− no ha obtenido respuestas sobre estas transacciones de parte de autoridades de otro continente, motivo por el cual dicha historia está pendiente de publicación.

Lea aquí el resumen de los hallazgos más destacados de la investigación del ICIJ

 

Moderator comment: Below is an unedited automated translation of the above news article.

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Panama, ‘risk jurisdiction’, according to United States banks

Mary Triny Zea
20 Sep 2020 - 02:55 PM

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The international journalistic investigation shows, exclusively, the opacity with which some international banking systems are handled. Illustration from ICIJ

Multimillion-dollar toxic transactions passed through several of the world's leading banks for individuals and companies targeted for massive looting of public funds, ignoring measures to combat money laundering with impunity.

This is revealed by more than 2,100 reports of suspicious activities of banks and financial institutions around the world for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (the Financial Intelligence Unit) of the United States Department of the Treasury (known by its acronym FinCen).

This agency analyzes financial transaction information to fight financial crimes, such as fraud, money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

The documents, prepared by financial entities in the United States that provide the intermediation service for financial institutions around the world in the event of potential suspicious activities, were analyzed for 16 months by about 400 journalists from about 110 media outlets in 88 countries, the result of a leak obtained by the digital medium BuzzFeed News, and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), based in the United States.

BuzzFeed News is a news outlet that was born in 2012. According to its website, it is a “global news organization that provides original reports online ...”. It claims to cover "great stories that hold the main institutions responsible for their actions and expose the injustices that change people's lives, all with an average of more than 50 million unique monthly readers."

For example, she mentions that it was the media that exposed “the hidden number of deaths in Puerto Rico after Hurricane María; the content of exploitation in the big technological platforms and the secrets of government officials from London to São Paulo ”.

<<XTXV3XJLNJC4PMTFMQLJV2JYTE.jpg>>
Archives from the United States Financial Intelligence Unit (Fincen) demonstrate the opacity with which the world's leading banks are managed. Photo by ICIJ

The international journalistic investigation - known as FinCen Files - shows, exclusively, the opacity with which some international banking systems are handled, the existence of anonymous clients and elements of conviction of alleged financial crimes, and that, despite the fines imposed by On the part of the United States authorities, many banks play a fundamental role in the movement of money resulting from political corruption and organized crime.

Precisely, due to the issue of anonymous banking clients, several FinCen reports on suspicious activities (SAR, for its acronym in English) describe Panama as a "high-risk jurisdiction for money laundering and financial crimes." In the reports, there are red alerts for suspicious banking transactions in the local bank. They also warn that it is common in Panamanian entities that the final beneficiaries of the money are unknown.

For example, the Bank of New York Mellon (BNY) reveals in one of its reports to FinCen 986 suspicious transactions: “Many of the transfers were sent from, through or to jurisdictions that have been determined as having a high risk of money laundering. and other financial crimes, such as Latvia, Ukraine, Cyprus, Marshall Islands, British Virgin Islands (BVI), Russia and Panama ”, a description that is repeated in other SARs that also highlight, for example, the existence of companies created by the defunct firm Panamanian lawyer Mossack Fonseca, or data disclosed by ICIJ in international investigations published in the past.

La Prensa consulted the Financial Analysis Unit of Panama (UAF) for the generalized international image of Panama around being a “risky jurisdiction” and it responded –by mail– that “Panama is not considered a high risk jurisdiction. On the other hand, Panama is making a great inter-institutional effort to comply with the Action Plan of the International Financial Action Group (FATF) ”.

In the leaked documents, in addition to describing the Panamanian jurisdiction as “risky”, mentions are made of companies linked to the Waked family, which have been the subject of local and foreign publications in the recent past.

In addition, suspicious reports were found from a transnational with operations in Panama. However, until now La Prensa - invited by the ICIJ to be part of this investigation - has not obtained answers about these transactions from authorities from another continent, which is why this story is pending.

 

https://www.prensa.com/economia/panama-jurisdiccion-de-riesgo-segun-bancos-de-estados-unidos

[Moderator_02]

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Panamá, el ‘hub’ del chavismo

Por CONNECTAS

24 sep 2020 - 01:23 PM

A pesar de toda la evidencia, en Panamá no se conoce ninguna investigación que involucre dinero público de Venezuela. CONNECTAS

A casi dos horas de Venezuela por aire, con el mismo idioma y esa familiaridad caribe, en la última década Panamá se convirtió en uno de los destinos favoritos para el refugio, la salida o la aventura de miles de venezolanos.

Aunque el país centroamericano no formó parte del proyecto político nacido en 2004 llamado ALBA, ni del acuerdo energético por el que el expresidente Hugo Chávez ofrecía petróleo con créditos de ganga, Petrocaribe, aquí llegaron, se movieron y pasaron miles de millones de dólares de venezolanos, incluso de la estatal Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa).

Entre 2012 y 2015, inyectaron 427 millones en compañías de Panamá, según datos de la Contraloría General de la República. Por esos tiempos, la Superintendencia de Bancos dijo que Venezuela ocupaba el tercer lugar entre los países de origen de depósitos externos en el sistema bancario local -unos 1.400 millones de dólares en 2015, que ascendieron a 2.811 en 2019- y la cámara de la construcción aplaudía la participación de venezolanos en el boom inmobiliario.

La abrumadora avalancha de la época la sintetizó el expresidente de México, Vicente Fox, cuando dijo: “El mejor ministro de Economía que ha tenido Panamá es Hugo Chávez”.

“Un banquero podía manejar carteras de 500 millones de dólares de clientes de Venezuela para colocarlos alrededor del mundo”, dijo un entrenado operador financiero local.

Panamá podrá ser diminuto pero facilita el acceso al mundo financiero, garantiza secrecía y siempre fue seductor para gente con vocación de riesgo, poder o fortuna. Con restricciones cambiarias, una corrupción galopante y la economía al borde del colapso en su país, los chavistas no serían la excepción.

 

Chavismo INC. identificó 242 sociedades anónimas en Panamá con 380 relaciones con la trama que involucra a personas de interés en Venezuela. De ellas, ocho fueron señaladas por la Oficina de Control de Activos Extranjeros de Estados Unidos (Ofac) y otras tantas están bajo investigación judicial en algún país del mundo por cuestiones como lavado de dinero o sobornos.

La plataforma offshore famosa por Panamá Papers fue aprovechada por familiares de pesos pesados del gobierno venezolano como Diego Salazar Carreño, testaferros como Samark López Bello y el clan familiar de la primera dama, Cilia Flores de Maduro. Hubo bancos ávidos por canalizar dinero en inversiones inmobiliarias o de otro tipo sin preguntar y abogados dispuestos a registrar sociedades con la facilidad de quien abre una ventana.

También las camarillas del chavismo encontraron aquí especialistas para lavar miles de millones de dólares del Estado sin levantar sospechas, como los que ayudó a limpiar un banquero alemán en el trópico llamado Matthias Krull.

Esa trama empezó en diciembre de 2014.

Venezuela cerraba un año marcado por la violenta represión de protestas contra un régimen que acumulaba problemas como la escasez de alimentos, la inseguridad y una inflación galopante. En Panamá, con un gobierno que acababa de asumir, solo se hablaba del escándalo de corrupción que ponía en jaque a los presidentes de la región, incluidos los locales: Lava Jato. Los banqueros seguían las noticias que los señalaban como intermediarios en el pago de sobornos estrafalarios de la gigante brasilera Odebrecht, pero había uno al que esas cuestiones no le quitaban el sueño: Matthias Krull.

Krull era directivo del banco suizo Julius Baer. De origen alemán pero residente en Panamá, hacía una de esas vidas de banquero europeo: casa en un barrio cerrado mega exclusivo y otra en la playa, juegos de golf y viajes de placer o negocios en avión privado. Desde su oficina en una torre espejada con vista al mar, gestionaba una cartera jugosa de personas vinculadas al chavismo y otros millonarios de Venezuela, con lo que reportaba al banco ganancias de varios millones anuales.

En diciembre de 2014 empezó a pergeñar un esquema similar al usado por Odebrecht pero para otro patrón: el Conspirador 7.

Los documentos de la causa de una Corte del Distrito Sur de Florida, en Estados Unidos, no identificaron al Conspirador 7 pero lo describieron de una forma tan precisa que medios internacionales como el Miami Herald publicaron que se trataba de Raúl Gorrín: “Un multimillonario dueño de una cadena de televisión en Venezuela”.

Además de empresario, multimillonario y dueño de una cadena televisiva, Gorrín es investigado por presunto blanqueo y malversación de fondos en España y Estados Unidos.

Él nunca se refirió al asunto ni respondió a las consultas enviadas por Chavismo INC. Lo que es evidente en el expediente es que había 600 millones de dólares de la petrolera estatal Pdvsa para camuflar, así que Krull puso manos a la obra.

Matthias Krull, el banquero alemán que desde el trópico blanqueó dinero del chavismo mientras recorría el mundo. Foto: Tal Cual.

Lo primero que supo fue que uno de sus clientes había aprovechado una oportunidad. En la convulsionada Venezuela de ese momento, con la moneda local cayendo en picada y el dólar oficial a un valor mucho menor del de la calle, el fraude con operaciones cambiarias prometía ganancias estrafalarias. Eso vio Conspirador 7 junto a otros boliburgueses y funcionarios clave de Pdvsa.

Lo que hicieron fue complicado y complejo, pero puede simplificarse así: fabricaron un acuerdo por el cual una empresa -Rantor Capital- le prestaba a Pdvsa 7,200 millones de bolívares y, seis días después, cedía los derechos de esa deuda a otra empresa -Eaton Global Services Limited-, que la cobró en dólares a tasa oficial: 600 millones de dólares, a pagar en una cuenta bancaria en Europa.

La tramoya dejó más de 500 millones de dólares de ganancia, gracias al pago de sobornos y, claro, a la diferencia del dólar oficial y el del mercado. Un fraude sobre otro fraude. Esa plata se encargaría de camuflar Krull y otros lavadores experimentados.

Cinco meses después de iniciada la operación que se hizo famosa con el nombre que le dio la causa en Estados Unidos, Money Flight, la conspiración se había duplicado gracias a esa bicicleta y al combustible que Pdvsa no paraba de inyectar: más 1,200 millones de dólares.

Ahí, Krull dibujó el esquema para convertir parte de ese dinero sucio en uno con apariencia de lícito. Junto a sus colegas, ideó tres estrategias: inversiones inmobiliarias, sistemas de inversión falsa y apertura de empresas fantasma, con sus respectivas cuentas bancarias, en paraísos fiscales y en Estados Unidos. Siempre apelando a testaferros.

¿Por qué todo ese trabajo? Porque para transferir fondos, el banco pide una justificación —pago por la compra de inmuebles o equipos, por ejemplo— y documentos de respaldo. El soborno, las ganancias producidas por un esquema de cambio de moneda para desfalcar millones de Pdvsa o la malversación de fondos, se sabe, no son justificaciones válidas.

Así que inventaron inversiones falsas en valores falsos, para simular una ganancia falsa con compras de pagarés, bonos y fondos completos de inversión, también falsos. “Las inversiones falsas en valores falsos son justificaciones convenientes porque son más difíciles de investigar y verificar por un banco (…).

Es difícil determinar la verdadera intención de las partes y la naturaleza fraudulenta de la inversión”, dice el documento de la confesión de Krull al tribunal federal de Miami. El fraude, además, incluyó favores de bancos amigos y sobornos a funcionarios para autorizar contratos o evitar investigaciones.

El crimen parecía perfecto, pero sucedió algo que lo truncaría: alguien habló.

En enero de 2016, un operador financiero mencionado en la causa como Confidential Source -El Confidente-, se acercó a una oficina del gobierno en Miami y contó que había recibido 78 millones de euros por un contrato de préstamo fraudulento con Pdvsa. Un mes después, comenzó a grabar las conversaciones con los otros implicados: sumó más de 100 archivos en dos años y reveló un plan global de corrupción al más alto nivel.

El intercambio de llamados, reuniones, notas escritas a mano, mails y chats recolectados en la causa, refleja los malabares para enrumbar parvas de dinero a personas políticamente expuestas (PEPs) y un manejo perfecto del universo de las finanzas. También nombres que se repiten: empresarios y algunos funcionarios de Pdvsa, como el vicepresidente -Venezuelan Official 1-, el director de planificación financiera y el asesor legal. También fueron claves banqueros, asesores financieros y lavadores profesionales que, junto a Krull y El Confidente, actuaron en bloque aunque cada quien cuidara los intereses -y los millones- de un jefe diferente.

Por supuesto, hubo testaferros como Mario Enrique Bonilla Valera. Amigo de los hijos de la primera dama de Venezuela, Bonilla Valera logró pasar de la playstation al suculento universo de los negocios de forma rápida y precoz a los 20 años.

En la causa, Krull lo involucró con sus amigos “los chamos”: los hijos de la esposa de Nicolás Maduro. Los Chamos aparecen en la causa cuatro veces, la más contundente es en el “Resumen de la Operación 600” que muestra cómo se repartió la plata: 227 millones de euros para un boliburgués, 68 millones para Conspirador 7 y 159 millones para Los Chamos.

El “Resumen de la Operación 600” muestra cómo se repartió la plata: 159 millones para Los Chamos. | Fuente: Corte de Distrito de EE.UU.

La operación muestra un patrón común en otros casos de corrupción de Venezuela analizados por Chavismo INC.: cada cacique a cargo de algún área del Estado —en este caso, Pdvsa—, disponía de miles de millones que terminaban repartidos en un grupo de funcionarios.

Para mover y disponer de ese dinero, se asociaban a empresarios —como Conspirador 7— y testaferros —en este caso, Bonilla Valera— con los que montaban la estafa. Al final, buscaban a los operadores financieros —Krull o El Delator— para que lavaran.

En esta jugada, la Justicia los agarró. Krull se declaró culpable de delitos como conspiración para cometer lavado de dinero y pago de sobornos, pagó una fianza de cinco millones y fue sentenciado a 10 años de prisión el 29 de octubre de 2018.

El banquero suizo en el trópico tenía otros clientes vinculados al gobierno de Venezuela, algunos incluidos en la misma causa y otros que saltaron en investigaciones periodísticas como los Panama Papers.

“En Panamá, Krull tenía una cartera importante”, dijo un banquero a Chavismo INC. Lo mismo contó otro, que agregó detalles sobre esa voracidad sin pruritos ni medición de riesgo:

“A nadie le preocupaba de dónde salía la plata mientras entrara. Ni aquí, ni en Estados Unidos, ni en la China. Si después embargaban los depósitos, tampoco importaba: la plata ya estaba adentro”.

Un consultor que solía compartir copas y viajes con Krull, igual: “Todos se manejaban así… Hasta que los gringos le pusieron el ojo a los venezolanos, ahí Panamá tomó la iniciativa de dejar el negocio de Venezuela”.

Al día de hoy, no se conocen investigaciones abiertas a Krull en la Justicia de Panamá. Tampoco en los otros casos donde hubo sociedades panameñas involucradas.

Lo que sí hizo el Gobierno panameño fue reaccionar a la embestida de Ofac con referentes del chavismo: sancionó a 55 funcionarios y algunas empresas venezolanas.

El 27 de marzo de 2018 publicó los nombres de personas naturales y jurídicas “consideradas de alto riesgo en materia de Blanqueo de Capitales”, entre las que se encontraban el propio Nicolás Maduro, el todopoderoso Diosdado Cabello, y el sobrino favorito de la primera dama Cilia Flores, Carlos Erik Malpica Flores. Para ese entonces, alrededor de Malpica Flores ya orbitaba una docena de sociedades en Panamá.

En 2015, justo cuando Venezuela terminó de convertirse en un país que mataba a hambre o a bala y las personas huían en masa —los residentes en Panamá treparon de mil a seis mil en 2015—, el clan familiar de la esposa de Maduro abrió doce sociedades.

Habitante rotundo y reservado del poder, Malpica Flores tuvo los reflejos para no figurar en ninguna de esas estructuras jurídicas, pero su familia aún aparece: el padre en tres, la hermana y la tía en el resto. Once de las sociedades fueron disueltas a principios de 2016, tras la publicación de investigaciones periodísticas que los vinculaban al istmo. La otra cerró el 13 de abril de 2017.

Malpica Flores fue sancionado por la Ofac y por el gobierno de Panamá (ver perfil y conexiones aquí). No fue el único.

En la lista hay empresarios como Gorrín, y otros contratistas del Estado sospechados de corrupción como el grupo involucrado en los negocios irregulares con alimentos del programa CLAP. También funcionarios públicos y sus testaferros coinciden en ambas listas: la Clinton y la del Registro Público de Panamá. Uno de ellos es Samark López Bello.

Hasta el año 2013, López Bello no era un nombre que sonara mucho cuando se hablaba de política en el seno del poder venezolano. Ese año empezó a aparecer en algunas publicaciones periodísticas por supuestos vínculos a actividades comerciales en el país, pero pasaba desapercibida su relación con el superministro y vicepresidente, Tareck El Aissami. El 13 de febrero de 2017, Ofac lo señaló como el testaferro y blanqueador de El Aissami. Entonces saltó a la fama mundial.

“López Bello es un líder clave para El Aissami y lava las ganancias de la droga”, dijo Ofac cuando anunció su inclusión en la lista conocida como Clinton. Sobre El Aissami, Ofac apuntó que “facilitó los envíos de narcóticos desde Venezuela (…) así como el control de rutas de drogas por los puertos de Venezuela”. Él negó todo: “Esta pretendida agresión infame, canallada del imperialismo (…). Acúsennos de lo que les de la gana, nosotros sigamos construyendo el sueño de Bolívar”, dijo mediante un video en su cuenta de Twitter.

Cinco años antes de eso, en 2012, López Bello tomó el control de una sociedad registrada en Panamá en 2002: Yakima Trading Corp., también señalada por Ofac. Cuando el capital social había trepado a 10 millones de dólares, el 7 de octubre de 2015, decidieron trasladarla a Barbados, según consta en la escritura de la Notaría Duodécima del Circuito de Panamá.

En la empresa, registrada por el bufete de abogados Vives y Asociados, López Bello comparte directiva con tres hombres que lo acompañan en muchas otras del mundo, especialmente Bahamas, Islas Vírgenes y, claro, Venezuela. El 4 de febrero de 2012 abrió una gemela, donde se replica el agente residente y la directiva.

El bufete renunció el 14 de febrero de 2017, cuando los vínculos de López Bello con la corrupción fueron públicos, y la sociedad fue suspendida por falta de actividad el 11 de octubre de 2019.

En las actas del Registro Público de Panamá no hay mucho más detalles sobre las sociedades, pero la investigación transnacional Paradise Papers aportó algunas pistas: a través de Yakima Trading Corp., López Belló selló negocios con Pdvsa. Sus abogados dijeron a Armando.info que la sociedad fue creada para “proyectos a nivel internacional con el nombre de Profit, pero la empresa nunca tuvo actividad, ni cuenta bancaria”.

Relaciones de Samark José López Bello

López Bello operó en Panamá por más de diez años, pero recién llamó la atención cuando la Ofac lo mencionó. El 16 de febrero de 2017, la Superintendencia de Bancos envió una circular a las entidades financieras donde les solicitaba verificar si mantenía “relaciones contractuales con su entidad bancaria”, si los procesos de debida diligencia se habían realizado como correspondía, de acuerdo a la regulación, y avisar si surgían cuentas o movimientos bancarios que lo involucraran. La debida diligencia con López Bello evidentemente había fallado o su perfil de riesgo fue pasado por alto. Otra vez, no fue el único caso.

La debida diligencia es el proceso que bancos y abogados están obligados a hacer para conocer al cliente y evitar dar instrumentos legales para el lavado o corrupción a personas expuestas. Es obligación por ley y todos juran que lo cumplen, pero es evidente que aceptan incorporar a cientos de personas involucradas en negocios dudosos. “Hasta que los gringos pusieron el ojo en Venezuela, los banqueros y abogados hicieron la vista gorda. ¿Por qué? Porque lo que importa es que el dinero llegue”, dijo un asesor financiero venezolano residente en Panamá, que vio en primera fila el baile de los millones de la corrupción venezolana.

Abrir una sociedad en Panamá es legal y esconder plata en refugios fiscales no siempre es signo de delito. Algunas personas declaran sus fortunas al fisco y cumplen su parte del trato, pero donde hay un caso de corrupción o evasión, casi siempre hay una empresa o cuenta o deicomiso establecida en un paraíso fiscal. Como las de López Bello.

Los datos rastreados por Chavismo INC. muestran que en la gran mayoría de las volteretas del poder en Venezuela para quedarse con tajadas de dinero público, hubo una sociedad panameña. El exviceministro de energía Nervis Gerardo Villalobos Cárdenas —requerido por la Justicia en varios países por supuesto soborno y lavado— aparece como directivo de Pomerol Investments Group S.A. y vinculado a varias más (ver perfil y conexiones aquí).

El empresario argentino que pasó de ser un minorista de productos de laboratorio a un potente proveedor del Gobierno venezolano, Juan José Levy, está vinculado a Sunblaze Foundation y usó los servicios de Mossack Fonseca. La plataforma incluyó hasta al propio Hugo Chávez: en el pago de sobornos del Lava Jato, Odebrecht le depositó al publicista Joao Santana 35 millones de dólares en la sociedad panameña Shellbill Finance S.A. para desarrollar su propaganda electoral.

La bahía de la ciudad de Panamá inflada por el boom inmobiliario, en el que los venezolanos tuvieron un papel fundamental. Foto: Roberto Quintero.

Los refugios fiscales son más de cien en el mundo. El poder chavista echó mano de casi todos. Islas de ensueño, como Seychelles y Bahamas; colonias de algún país poderoso, como las Islas Vírgenes Británicas del Reino Unido; estados como Delaware y Nevada en Estados Unidos. Y naciones soberanas, como Suiza y Panamá.

Todos ellos permiten a sus protegidos cercar sus privilegios: no pagar impuestos, no rendir cuentas, esquivar controles en sus países, además de mover dinero sucio. En la trama chavista hay un ejemplo perfecto para mostrar cómo se usan: el de la Banca Privada de Andorra (BPA).

Los hechos sucedieron entre 2004 y 2016, involucran cientos de millones de dólares de Pdvsa, una madeja de sociedades anónimas registradas en Panamá y cuentas bancarias asociadas en el principado de Andorra.

La trama, investigada y expuesta por autoridades de España y Venezuela, tiene como uno de sus actores principales a Diego Salazar Carreño, un venezolano con tips excéntricos como grabar un disco de boleros o gastar seis mil euros en una sentada en un bar de París. Pero eso no fue lo que lo hizo participar de esta cuestión, sino su parentesco con quien comandó Pdvsa durante diez años: es primo hermano de Rafael Ramírez.

Lo que hizo Salazar Carreño junto a otros colaboradores y funcionarios de la petrolera —siempre según los registros judiciales— fue cobrar sobornos por contratos públicos y, para no dejar rastros, pedir el pago en cuentas bancarias de Andorra a nombre de las sociedades panameñas.

Así, estos hombres unieron hilos entre puntos como Malta, Andorra, Panamá y China como máquinas perfectas, hasta formar una telaraña entreverada de países con nombres como Highland Asset Corp. —registrada en Panamá el 20 de abril de 2007— y números como AD66 0006 0008 2512 0026 9407 —una cuenta en Andorra a nombre de esa sociedad—, por donde circulaba dinero cuyo origen fue ese tanque de parir dólares que supo ser Pdvsa. Dos mil millones de euros viajaron por 37 cuentas bancarias a nombre de 13 empresas panameñas, para integrar los pagos de sobornos al mercado lícito y cerrar el círculo del delito. A través de ellas, además, compraron bienes inmuebles por más de 20 millones de dólares.

“Las empresas constituyeron un entramado en las que se observó una triangulación en cuanto a los socios, directivos, bienes y activos manejados (…) los ciudadanos fungen en dichas empresas como socios, posteriormente traspasan el paquete accionario a otra empresa en la cual también son socios, y continúan vendiendo las acciones entre sí (…). Circulan entre éstas, pasan de una empresa a otro, y al patrimonio personal de los socios, para regresar a manos de otra empresa o algún otro socio, con lo cual logran disfrazar o enmascarar el origen de los bienes y activos”, expuso el Tribunal Supremo de Justicia de Venezuela basado en informes de la Policía y la Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera de Andorra, entre otros.

El caso está siendo investigado en Venezuela, España, Estados Unidos y Andorra. Salazar Carreño fue detenido en Venezuela en 2017 luego de haber sido acusado por la Fiscalía de Nicolás Maduro por blanqueo de capitales. Los abogados de Salazar Carreño dijeron a Chavismo INC. que “no existe procedimiento judicial alguno en el que se señale que exista alguna cuenta bancaria vinculada al Sr. Salazar Carreño que haya recibido fondos provenientes de Pdvsa”.

La justicia venezolana sostuvo que está vinculado a una red criminal que supuestamente blanqueó más de 1.400 millones de dólares en comisiones ilegales a cambio de contratos con Pdvsa. Su primo, Rafael Ramírez, también señalado por esos hechos, ha defendido la inocencia propia y la de su pariente. Ramírez, que fue uno de los colaboradores clave de Chávez, está enfrentado actualmente con Maduro.

A pesar de toda la evidencia, en Panamá no se conoce ninguna investigación que involucre dinero público de Venezuela. La Fiscalía Anticorrupción está investigando un caso donde hay una venezolana, pero vinculado a plata ecuatoriana: Petroecuador. Ese es otro de los beneficios del Hub.

 

Moderator comment: Below is an unedited automated translation of the above news article.

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Panama, the ‘hub’ of Chavismo

By CONNECTAS
24 Sep 2020 - 01:23 PM

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Despite all the evidence, there is no known investigation in Panama involving public money from Venezuela. CONNECTS

Almost two hours from Venezuela by air, with the same language and that Caribbean familiarity, in the last decade Panama has become one of the favorite destinations for the refuge, the exit or the adventure of thousands of Venezuelans.

Although the Central American country was not part of the political project born in 2004 called ALBA, nor of the energy agreement by which former President Hugo Chávez offered oil with bargain credits, Petrocaribe, here they arrived, they moved and they spent billions of dollars of Venezuelans , including the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).

Between 2012 and 2015, they injected 427 million in companies in Panama, according to data from the Comptroller General of the Republic. At that time, the Superintendency of Banks said that Venezuela ranked third among the countries of origin of external deposits in the local banking system - about 1,400 million dollars in 2015, which amounted to 2,811 in 2019 - and the construction chamber He applauded the participation of Venezuelans in the real estate boom.

The overwhelming avalanche of the time was synthesized by the former president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, when he said: "The best Minister of Economy that Panama has had is Hugo Chávez."

“A banker could handle $ 500 million portfolios of Venezuelan clients to place around the world,” said a trained local financial operator.

Panama may be tiny but it facilitates access to the financial world, guarantees secrecy and has always been seductive for people with a vocation for risk, power or fortune. With exchange restrictions, rampant corruption and the economy on the brink of collapse in their country, the Chavistas would be no exception.
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Chavismo INC. identified 242 corporations in Panama with 380 relationships with the plot that involves persons of interest in Venezuela. Of these, eight were identified by the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) and many others are under judicial investigation in a country in the world for issues such as money laundering or bribery.

The offshore platform famous for Panama Papers was used by relatives of Venezuelan government heavyweights such as Diego Salazar Carreño, figureheads such as Samark López Bello and the family clan of the first lady, Cilia Flores de Maduro. There were banks eager to funnel money into real estate or other investments without asking and lawyers willing to register companies with the ease of opening a window.

The Chavismo cliques also found specialists here to launder billions of dollars from the State without raising suspicions, like those who helped clean up a German banker in the tropics named Matthias Krull.

That plot began in December 2014.

Venezuela closed a year marked by the violent repression of protests against a regime that accumulated problems such as food shortages, insecurity and galloping inflation. In Panama, with a government that had just taken over, they only talked about the corruption scandal that put the presidents of the region in check, including local ones: Lava Jato. Bankers followed the news that pointed to them as intermediaries in the payment of outlandish bribes from the Brazilian giant Odebrecht, but there was one who did not lose sleep on these issues: Matthias Krull.

Krull was a director of the Swiss bank Julius Baer. Of German origin but living in Panama, he led one of those European banker lives: a house in a mega exclusive gated community and another on the beach, golf games and business or pleasure trips by private plane. From his office in a mirrored tower overlooking the sea, he managed a juicy portfolio of people linked to Chavismo and other millionaires in Venezuela, with which he reported earnings of several million annually to the bank.

In December 2014, he began to design a scheme similar to that used by Odebrecht but for another employer: Conspirator 7.

The documents of the case of a Court of the Southern District of Florida, in the United States, did not identify the Conspirator 7 but they described him in such a precise way that international media such as the Miami Herald published that he was Raúl Gorrín: “A billionaire owner from a television station in Venezuela ”.

In addition to being a businessman, billionaire and owner of a television network, Gorrín is being investigated for alleged money laundering and embezzlement in Spain and the United States.

He never referred to the matter or responded to inquiries sent by Chavismo INC. What is evident in the file is that there was 600 million dollars from the state oil company PDVSA to camouflage, so Krull got to work.

Matthias Krull, the German banker who from the tropics laundered money from Chavismo while traveling the world. Photo: As Such.

The first thing he knew was that one of his clients had taken an opportunity. In the convulsed Venezuela of that time, with the local currency plummeting and the official dollar at a much lower value than on the street, foreign exchange fraud promised bizarre profits. That was seen by Conspirator 7 along with other Bolibourgeois and key PDVSA officials.

What they did was complicated and complex, but it can be simplified as follows: they fabricated an agreement whereby a company -Rantor Capital- loaned PDVSA 7.2 billion bolivars and, six days later, transferred the rights to that debt to another company -Eaton Global Services Limited-, which collected it in dollars at the official rate: 600 million dollars, to be paid into a bank account in Europe.

The tramoya left more than 500 million dollars in profit, thanks to the payment of bribes and, of course, the difference between the official and market dollars. A fraud upon another fraud. That silver would camouflage Krull and other experienced scrubbers.

Five months after the start of the operation that became famous with the name that gave it the cause in the United States, Money Flight, the conspiracy had doubled thanks to that bicycle and the fuel that PDVSA did not stop injecting: more than 1,200 million dollars .

There, Krull drew the scheme to turn some of that dirty money into one that looks legitimate. Together with his colleagues, he devised three strategies: real estate investments, false investment systems and the opening of shell companies, with their respective bank accounts, in tax havens and in the United States. Always appealing to figureheads.

Why all that work? Because to transfer funds, the bank asks for a justification - payment for the purchase of real estate or equipment, for example - and supporting documents. Bribery, the profits produced by a currency exchange scheme to embezzle millions of PDVSA or the embezzlement of funds, it is known, are not valid justifications.

So they invented false investments in false securities, to simulate a false profit with purchases of notes, bonds and complete investment funds, also false. “Fake investments in fake securities are convenient justifications because they are more difficult for a bank to investigate and verify (…).

It is difficult to determine the true intention of the parties and the fraudulent nature of the investment, ”says the document of Krull's confession to the federal court in Miami. The fraud also included favors from friendly banks and bribes to officials to authorize contracts or avoid investigations.

The crime seemed perfect, but something happened that would truncate it: someone spoke.

In January 2016, a financial operator mentioned in the case as Confidential Source -El Confidente-, approached a government office in Miami and said that he had received 78 million euros for a fraudulent loan contract with PDVSA. A month later, he began recording conversations with the others involved: he added more than 100 files in two years and revealed a global corruption plan at the highest level.

The exchange of calls, meetings, handwritten notes, emails and chats collected in the cause, reflects the juggling to send money stacks to politically exposed persons (PEPs) and a perfect handling of the universe of finance. Also names that are repeated: businessmen and some PDVSA officials, such as the vice president -Venezuelan Official 1-, the director of financial planning and the legal advisor. Bankers, financial advisers and professional launderers were also key who, together with Krull and El Confidente, acted as a bloc although each one looked after the interests - and the millions - of a different boss.

Of course, there were figureheads like Mario Enrique Bonilla Valera. A friend of the children of the first lady of Venezuela, Bonilla Valera managed to move from the playstation to the succulent universe of business quickly and precociously at the age of 20.

In the case, Krull involved him with his friends “los chamos”: the children of Nicolás Maduro's wife. Los Chamos appear in the case four times, the most forceful is in the "Summary of Operation 600" that shows how the money was distributed: 227 million euros for a Boliburgués, 68 million for Conspirator 7 and 159 million for Los Chamos.

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The "Summary of Operation 600" shows how the silver was distributed: 159 million for Los Chamos. | Source: US District Court.

The operation shows a common pattern in other cases of corruption in Venezuela analyzed by Chavismo INC: each cacique in charge of some area of the State - in this case, PDVSA - had billions that ended up being distributed among a group of officials.

To move and dispose of that money, they associated with businessmen - such as Conspirator 7 - and front men - in this case, Bonilla Valera - with those who set up the scam. In the end, they sought out the financial operators — Krull or El Delator — to do the laundry.

In this move, Justice grabbed them. Krull pleaded guilty to crimes such as conspiracy to commit money laundering and payment of bribes, posted a $ 5 million bond, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison on October 29, 2018.

The Swiss banker in the tropics had other clients linked to the Venezuelan government, some included in the same case and others who jumped into journalistic investigations such as the Panama Papers.

"In Panama, Krull had an important portfolio," a banker told Chavismo INC. The same was said by another, who added details about that voracity without itching or risk measurement:

“Nobody cared where the money came from as long as it went in. Not here, not in the United States, not in China. If they later seized the deposits, it didn't matter either: the money was already inside ”.

A consultant who used to share drinks and trips with Krull, the same: "Everyone handled it like this ... Until the gringos set their eyes on Venezuelans, there Panama took the initiative to leave the business of Venezuela."

To date, there are no known investigations open to Krull in the Justice of Panama. Neither in the other cases where Panamanian companies were involved.

What the Panamanian government did do was react to Ofac's onslaught with Chavismo leaders: it sanctioned 55 officials and some Venezuelan companies.

On March 27, 2018, it published the names of natural and legal persons "considered high risk in matters of Money Laundering", among which were Nicolás Maduro himself, the all-powerful Diosdado Cabello, and the first lady's favorite nephew. Cilia Flores, Carlos Erik Malpica Flores. By then, around Malpica Flores already orbited a dozen companies in Panama.

In 2015, just when Venezuela finished turning into a country that killed by starvation or by bullet and people fled en masse - residents in Panama climbed from one thousand to six thousand in 2015 - the family clan of Maduro's wife opened twelve companies .

A resounding and reserved inhabitant of power, Malpica Flores had the reflexes not to appear in any of those legal structures, but his family still appears: the father in three, the sister and the aunt in the rest. Eleven of the companies were dissolved in early 2016, after the publication of journalistic investigations that linked them to the isthmus. The other closed on April 13, 2017.

Malpica Flores was sanctioned by the Ofac and by the government of Panama (see profile and connections here). He was not the only one.

On the list are businessmen such as Gorrín, and other state contractors suspected of corruption, such as the group involved in the irregular food business of the CLAP program. Public officials and their front men also coincide on both lists: the Clinton and the Panama Public Registry. One of them is Samark López Bello.

Until 2013, López Bello was not a name that rang very much when talking about politics within the Venezuelan power. That year he began to appear in some journalistic publications for alleged links to commercial activities in the country, but his relationship with the super minister and vice president, Tareck El Aissami, went unnoticed. On February 13, 2017, Ofac named him as El Aissami's front man and bleach. Then he rose to world fame.

"López Bello is a key leader for El Aissami and laundering drug proceeds," Ofac said when he announced his inclusion on the list known as Clinton. Regarding El Aissami, Ofac pointed out that “it facilitated the shipments of narcotics from Venezuela (…) as well as the control of drug routes through the ports of Venezuela”. He denied everything: “This alleged infamous, scoundrel aggression of imperialism (…). Accuse us of whatever you want, let's keep building Bolívar's dream, ”he said through a video on his Twitter account.

Five years before that, in 2012, López Bello took control of a company registered in Panama in 2002: Yakima Trading Corp., also designated by Ofac. When the capital stock had risen to 10 million dollars, on October 7, 2015, they decided to transfer it to Barbados, as recorded in the deed of the Twelfth Notary Public of the Panama Circuit.

In the company, registered by the Vives y Asociados law firm, López Bello shares a board with three men who accompany him in many others around the world, especially the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands and, of course, Venezuela. On February 4, 2012, a twin opened, where the resident agent and the board are replicated.

The firm resigned on February 14, 2017, when López Bello's ties to corruption were public, and the company was suspended for lack of activity on October 11, 2019.

In the minutes of the Public Registry of Panama there are not much more details about the companies, but the transnational investigation Paradise Papers provided some clues: through Yakima Trading Corp., López Belló sealed deals with PDVSA. His lawyers told Armando.info that the company was created for "international projects under the name of Profit, but the company never had activity, nor a bank account."

Relationships of Samark José López Bello

López Bello operated in Panama for more than ten years, but only came to attention when the Ofac mentioned him. On February 16, 2017, the Superintendency of Banks sent a circular to financial institutions asking them to verify if they had “contractual relationships with their bank”, if the due diligence processes had been carried out as appropriate, in accordance with regulation , and notify if accounts or bank movements that involved it arose. Due diligence with López Bello had evidently failed or his risk profile was overlooked. Again, it was not the only case.

Due diligence is the process that banks and lawyers are obliged to do to know the client and avoid giving legal instruments for laundering or corruption to exposed persons. It is an obligation by law and everyone swears that they comply, but it is evident that they agree to incorporate hundreds of people involved in dubious businesses. “Until the gringos turned their eyes on Venezuela, the bankers and lawyers turned a blind eye. Why? Because what matters is that the money arrives, ”said a Venezuelan financial advisor living in Panama, who saw in the front row the dance of the millions of Venezuelan corruption.

Opening a company in Panama is legal and hiding money in tax shelters is not always a sign of crime. Some people declare their fortunes to the treasury and fulfill their end of the bargain, but where there is a case of corruption or evasion, there is almost always a company or account or trust established in a tax haven. Like those of López Bello.

The data tracked by Chavismo INC. they show that in the vast majority of the somersaults of power in Venezuela to keep slices of public money, there was a Panamanian society. Former Deputy Energy Minister Nervis Gerardo Villalobos Cárdenas - required by the Justice in several countries for alleged bribery and laundering - appears as a director of Pomerol Investments Group S.A. and linked to several more (see profile and connections here).

The Argentine businessman who went from being a laboratory products retailer to a powerful supplier for the Venezuelan government, Juan José Levy, is linked to the Sunblaze Foundation and used the services of Mossack Fonseca. The platform even included Hugo Chávez himself: in the payment of bribes from Lava Jato, Odebrecht deposited the publicist Joao Santana 35 million dollars in the Panamanian company Shellbill Finance S.A. to develop your electoral propaganda.

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The bay of Panama City inflated by the real estate boom, in which Venezuelans played a fundamental role. Photo: Roberto Quintero.

There are more than one hundred tax shelters in the world. The Chavista power reached out to almost everyone. Dream islands, like the Seychelles and the Bahamas; colonies of some powerful country, such as the British Virgin Islands of the United Kingdom; states like Delaware and Nevada in the United States. And sovereign nations, like Switzerland and Panama.

All of them allow their protégés to surround their privileges: not paying taxes, not being accountable, dodging controls in their countries, as well as moving dirty money. In the Chavista network there is a perfect example to show how they are used: that of the Private Bank of Andorra (BPA).

The events occurred between 2004 and 2016, involving hundreds of millions of dollars from PDVSA, a skein of public limited companies registered in Panama and associated bank accounts in the principality of Andorra.

The plot, investigated and exposed by authorities in Spain and Venezuela, has as one of its main actors Diego Salazar Carreño, a Venezuelan with eccentric tips such as recording a bolero album or spending six thousand euros in a sit-in in a Paris bar. But that was not what made him participate in this issue, but rather his relationship with whom he commanded PDVSA for ten years: he is Rafael Ramírez's first cousin.

What Salazar Carreño did along with other collaborators and officials of the oil company - always according to the court records - was to collect bribes for public contracts and, in order not to leave traces, request payment in bank accounts in Andorra in the name of Panamanian companies.

Thus, these men joined threads between points such as Malta, Andorra, Panama and China like perfect machines, until they formed an intertwined web of countries with names like Highland Asset Corp. - registered in Panama on April 20, 2007 - and numbers like AD66 0006 0008 2512 0026 9407 —an account in Andorra in the name of that company—, through which money circulated whose origin was that tank for giving birth to dollars that PDVSA knew to be. Two billion euros traveled through 37 bank accounts in the name of 13 Panamanian companies, to integrate bribery payments to the legal market and close the circle of crime. Through them, they also bought real estate for more than 20 million dollars.

“The companies formed a network in which a triangulation was observed in terms of the partners, managers, goods and assets managed (…) the citizens act in these companies as partners, later they transfer the share package to another company in which they are also partners, and they continue to sell the shares among themselves (…). They circulate between these, go from one company to another, and to the personal patrimony of the partners, to return to the hands of another company or some other partner, with which they manage to disguise or mask the origin of the goods and assets ", stated the Court Supreme Justice of Venezuela based on reports from the Police and the Financial Intelligence Unit of Andorra, among others.

The case is being investigated in Venezuela, Spain, the United States and Andorra. Salazar Carreño was arrested in Venezuela in 2017 after being accused by the Nicolás Maduro Prosecutor's Office for money laundering. Salazar Carreño's attorneys told Chavismo INC. that "there is no judicial procedure in which it is indicated that there is a bank account linked to Mr. Salazar Carreño that has received funds from PDVSA."

The Venezuelan justice maintained that he is linked to a criminal network that allegedly laundered more than 1,400 million dollars in illegal commissions in exchange for contracts with PDVSA. His cousin, Rafael Ramírez, also accused of these events, has defended his own innocence and that of his relative. Ramírez, who was one of Chávez's key collaborators, is currently at odds with Maduro.

Despite all the evidence, there is no known investigation in Panama involving public money from Venezuela. The Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office is investigating a case where there is a Venezuelan, but linked to Ecuadorian silver: Petroecuador. That is another of the benefits of the Hub.

 

https://www.prensa.com/mundo/panama-el-hub-del-chavismo/

[Moderator_02]

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Panama up against a grey wall

Posted 05/05/2021

Panama is part of a community: the international one, which has its own rules and is governed by norms that Panama does not necessarily share. If our country decides - by action or omission - that it is not willing to comply with these standards, then Panama is isolated from the rest of the countries with which it does business and maintains other types of relationships. That is, it is separated and enters the so-called grey or blacklists. To regain its privileges as a member of the international community, Panama must compromise and abide by its rules or simply live isolated from the rest of the world. Panama decided on the former: it promised to comply but has not done so and the country has returned to a grey list, since it has been unable to make a recommendation: offshore, and that the competent authorities may have access to this information to monitor money laundering and terrorist financing. As is customary in Panama, promises - even the law - are broken, and that has us up against the wall, and we will continue to do so if the Government continues with this looseness. - LA PRENSA, May 5

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/opinion/panama-up-against-a-grey-wall

[Moderator_02]

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Panama stays on money laundering gray list

Posted 25/06/2021

Panama remains on the gray list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which identifies countries with deficiencies in their regimes for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.

The update came on Friday, June 25, at the end of the second annual plenary meeting of the international organization.

When Panama entered the sanctioning list in June 2019, the country committed to the execution of an action plan to address the deficiencies detected.

This action plan consists of 15 points, of which 5 are fully met and 10 are partially met. The times originally agreed to complete the plan have already expired, confirmed the FATF. the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF),  the entity that coordinates the strategy to strengthen the money laundering prevention regime and with regard to sanctioning lists, they have stressed that there is a sense of urgency to get out of the gray list, although there are no new specific deadlines for completing the plan.

The MEF recalled that "the FATF assesses countries based on their regulatory and institutional framework, as well as the effectiveness of their application." To improve Panama's position and the effectiveness of the legal framework, the MEF “has presented various legal modifications in order to optimize the domestic regulatory framework and ensure effective compliance with the anti-money laundering regime, against the financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, "said the entity in a statement.

The next FATF plenary meeting is scheduled for October.

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/business/panama-stays-on-money-laundering-gray-list

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Panama AG meets with FBI and US Laundering prosecutors

Posted 23/07/2021

Panama’s acting attorney general, Javier Caraballo, met on Thursday, July 22, with a delegation from the FBI    and prosecutors from the US Department of Justice.

The US Department of Justice was represented by the Hearing Prosecutor of the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, Michael Redmann, and the Hearing Prosecutor of the Fraud Section, Michel Culhane Harper.

No further details were provided of the meeting held in the office of Caraballo, who took office as attorney general of the Nation in charge on March 1, but it comes at a time when the US is seeking the extradition from Guatemala of Ricardo Martinelli’s two sons to face Money Laundering charges linked to a former “high official” during Martinelli’s term as president.

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/panama-ag-meets-with-fbi-and-us-laundering-prosecutors

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Lagging Panama has to rush to avoid money laundering black list

The third annual FATF plenary was held in Paris.

Posted 22/10/2021

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has urged Panama to play catch-up, by February 2022, the action plan agreed to address deficiencies in the prevention of money laundering to avoid being added to the organization’s black list.

Marcus Pleyer, president of the FATF, said that they are very concerned about the pace of progress that Panama has had in the action plan.

agreed between the international organization and the Panamanian government in 2019, when the country entered the gray list, and contains 15 items or actions to address the deficiencies detected in the regime for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.

In the previous plenary, held in June, Panama had amply fulfilled five points of the plan and, in the new evaluation, the number rose to seven. Therefore, there are still eight pending points.

Pleyer recalled that all the originally agreed times had expired in January of this year.

The FATF stressed thsense of urgency to advance the action plan and set February 2022 as the deadline. “If there is not enough progress, the FATF will consider next steps, which could include placing the country on our list of high-risk jurisdictions. , the so-called black list ”, said Pleyer, in the press conference after the plenary session.

Panama remains on the gray list along with 22 other jurisdictions. Jordan, Mali, and Turkey join this relationship, and Botswana and Mauritius leave it. Only Iran and North Korea are on the blacklist.

Carlos Barsallo, president of the Panamanian Chapter of Transparency International, said that the consequences of an eventual entry into the black list would be "very negative." He said that the effects will be directly related to the attitude taken by the Financial Crime Control Network (FinCEN), an office of the United States Department of the Treasury that has the attributions of an intelligence unit.

A FinCEN warning to banks would complicate the correspondent relationships of Panamanian banks, as much stricter due diligence measures would be required, which implies higher expenses. Then, correspondent banks would have to assess the cost-benefit relationship of maintaining that linkage. “It is a scenario that cannot be considered as having to arrive. It is unthinkable to be on a list with those two dance partners, "he said.

Julio Aguirre, financial consultant and expert in the prevention of money laundering, said that in the event of falling on the black list, all types of international transactions will be more difficult to handle, not only for banks but for any type of company. "The country has to unite flatly because we cannot allow that to happen," he warned.

Among the pending tasks identified by FATF is a better understanding of the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing of legal entities; ensuring effective, proportional, and dissuasive sanctions against violations of the money laundering regime; guaranteeing an adequate verification of updated information of the final beneficiaries by the obligated subjects and the timely access of the competent authorities, establishing effective mechanisms to monitor the activities of offshore entities, and demonstrate the capacity to investigate and process money laundering linked to crimes prosecutors abroad and provide constructive and timely international cooperation in relation to such crimes.

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/lagging-panama-has-to-rush-to-avoid-money-laundering-black-list

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FBI provided data leading to laundering bust

Posted 15/04/2022

Judge Wilber Castillo ordered the detention of four people allegedly involved in a money-laundering organization, which operated from Chiriquí and with possible links to an organization that was dismantled in Costa Rica.

While three other people were ordered to be notified periodically before a court and prevented from leaving the country.

The group made up of five men and two women were brought before the judge on Thursday, April 14, at a hearing requested by the Specialized Prosecutor's Office against Organized Crime in the province of Chiriquí.

The suspects were apprehended in the early hours of April 12 through multiple raids carried out in the districts of Boquete and David, where cash, high-end vehicles and firearms were seized.

A 48-hectare farm valued at $450,000 was also seized. There was a herd of 50 cattle on the property.

Three r Costa Rican citizens apprehended in the action were deported to Costa Rica since they were requested by the Judicial Investigation Agency because they belonged to an alleged money laundering network.

Prosecutor Antonio Nicolau Nicolau explained that this group is allegedly linked to the head of an organization that was defragmented in Costa Rica.

He revealed that this investigation was carried out with the support of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which in August 2021 provided data on the case.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/fbi-provided-data-leading-to-laundering-bust

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Panama remains on money laundering gray list

Posted 17/06/2022

The plenary session of the  Financial Action Task Force (FATF)  in Berlin on Friday, June 17 kept Panama on the list of jurisdictions with extended monitoring, known as the gray list.

The president of the FATF, the German Marcus Pleyer, said in a press conference that Panama fully complies with 11 of the 15 points of the action plan and that therefore there is work to be done to address the deficiencies detected in the prevention of money laundering. In the March plenary, the country had 8 points fully met.

Pleyer recalled that all the execution times of the action plan have expired – they did so in January 2021 – and urged the Panamanian authorities to quickly address the existing deficiencies. The next FATF plenary will be in Paris in October. The agency urged the country to complete the action plan by that date.

Panama entered the FATF gray list in June 2019, specifically due to the lack of effectiveness in preventing money laundering.

In plenary, the FATF decided to remove Malta from the gray list and approved an on-site visit to Pakistan after completing its action plan. Gibraltar, for its part, was included in the list.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/panama-remains-on-money-laundering-gray-list

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Panama leaves the FATF’s gray list

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28TH, 2023

The FATF excluded Panama from its gray list at the plenary meeting of organization, held in Paris and concluded that Panama has strengthened its system of prevention of money laundering.

The original article in Spanish is HERE

https://panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com/blog/panama-leaves-the-fatfs-gray-list/