MONEY LAUNDERING IN PANAMA IS OUT OF CONTROL WITH BANKS \

Written & Contributed By:   Kenneth Rijock - Financial Crime Consultant (USA)

Chronicles From:   Andrei Slavenkov - Financial Crime Analyst for Wanted SA (Netherlands)

PANAMA'S BANKS IN CRISIS: SUPERINTENDENT OF BANKING WARNS BANKS ABOUT RECORDS OF THEIR DEALINGS WITH MOSSACK AND FONSECA

The Superintendent of Banking in the Republic of Panama (Superintendencia de Bancos de Panamá) has cautioned the country's banks that they may be required to disclose details of their business with Mossack and Fonseca, including the names of corporations, formed by that law firm, holding accounts at the banks, and the identities of directors of those companies.

Although, on the surface, it appears to be a heads-up, allowing the banks to search their records, and to prepare to respond, when so ordered, other observers in Panama assert that the warnings were only delivered to give the banks, many of whom openly engage in money laundering, time to destroy incriminating books and records. Some Panama watchers believe that corrupt payments, at the highest level, insure that the money laundering continues with impunity.

 Remember, both the current Superintendent of Banking, Ricardo G Fernández D,  as well as his predecessor, Alberto Diamond R, have utterly failed to control the rampant money laundering that pervades the Panamanian Banking Structure, declining to charge either the guilty banks, or their officers, and there is no indication that the so-called "reformist" administration of President Juan Carlos Varela will ever go after the banks that launder drug cash, bribe & kickback money, and even terrorist funds en route to Hamas and Hezbollah.