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Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Re : Questions on citizenship vs pensionado visa
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Panama Economy Stays Strong - Bucking World Trends
| Panama Economy Stays Strong - Bucking World Trends | |
Date: 2008-09-18 Panama's economy will continue to grow, say analysts, resisting the global downturn led by US economic woes. "The strong economic performance of the last few years continues, despite the deteriorating global environment," said International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials last week in a public statement. "Panama was one of the fastest growing economies in the world in 2007 with real growth rising to 11.2 percent, following an average growth rate of nearly 8 percent in 2004-06 ... Growth in 2008-09 is projected to slow somewhat, to about 8 percent, with the Canal expansion and related investment activities partially offsetting the effects of higher oil prices and the slowdown in the U.S. and the global economy." The IMF has also upped predictions for Panama's economic growth to 8.3 per cent for this year, up from a more modest estimate of 7.7 per cent in April's World Economic Outlook report. "Despite a deteriorating external environment, economic prospects are favorable," concluded IMF board directors, "thanks to the Canal expansion project and associated investment, as well as improvements in competitiveness reflected in expanding export services such as tourism, communications, and transportation." IMF directors commented that Panama's financial sector has not been negatively affected by the global financial turmoil, noting the 'remarkable turnaround' in the non-financial public sector as well; these factors, combined with the strong economic growth, contributed to Panama's improved credit rating from Standard and Poors earlier this year, earning the country a BB+ (stable). Analysts at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, a global auditor, also estimate an increase of 8.5 to 9 per cent growth for Panama in 2008, in their Economic Perspectives 2008 report, "marking the sixth consecutive year of strong growth". According to the latest report by Indesa, a Panamanian advisory and financial services firm, the economy is expected to grow 8.4 per cent in 2008 and nearly 10 per cent in 2009, putting Panama at the forefront of economic growth in Latin America , along with Uruguay and Peru, which posted first quarter growth results of 11 and 9.2 per cent respectively. Panama's 2007 gross domestic product (GDP) topped $19.7 billion in 2007, and is projected to surpass $24 billion this year. The driving sectors in Panama are construction, mining, financial services, transport and telecomnunications, and hospitality. Last year, both construction and mining grew by 19.6 per cent apiece according to Indesa, offsetting smaller gains in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors. In fact, it is Panama's service-based economy that has allowed it to weather rising oil prices, as well as its proximity to the US, where economic uncertainty has travelers opting for nearby leisure destinations. Panama is emerging as a significant business and tourism destination in the region for travelers from both North and South America, with the Tocumen airport acting as a regional hub between the continent's major cities. In a report issued by the Panamanian government, authorities estimate the tertiary or service sector accounted for nearly three-quarters of the country's GDP in 2006. "In the past three years (2004, 2005, and 2006), the tertiary sector has developed significantly, with growth rates of 6.8 per cent, 9.4 per cent, and 9.3 per cent," indicated the Panama Trade Policy Review to the World Trade Organization. "Mention should be made of the Colon Free Zone and of the hotel and restaurant subsector, which grew by more than 10 per cent. Other components of the sector also trended upwards significantly, such as financial intermediation, wholesale and retail commerce, and real estate. "The high percentage of GDP that this sector represents and has represented in the past, shows that Panama is a service-oriented economy. In 2006 the sector accounted for 74 per cent of GDP." The external sector has also been a strong economic driver, with the export of goods averaging five per cent annual growth between 1997 and 2006, reaching more than $1 billion USD. By 2006, the net export of goods and services represented one third of Panama GDP. Despite the fact this year's numbers are down from 2007, which saw record growth levels of about 11 per cent, the overall positive trend is in stark contrast to regional predictions. The Economist estimates the mid-term trend for Latin America to average out at 3.9 per cent in 2012, while the IMF predicts a much better performance for Panama. "The medium-term outlook is promising, supported by the canal expansion and other large construction projects," noted the IMF's board of directors last year in a public statement. "For 2007-10, staff projects average annual real GDP growth of about 6.5 per cent, [and] inflation of 2.25 -2.75 per cent." IMF officials commended Panamanian authorities on governmental spending 'restraint' and improved tax collection in reducing public debt and creating a sound basis for economic growth. Declining unemployment, plummeting from 13.6 per cent in 2003 to 7.3 in 2007, was also cited, as was the positive impact of the Panama Canal expansion, expected to be completed in 2013 at a cost of some $5.5 billion. "The project is expected to boost GDP growth and job creation, both directly and by stimulating related industries," noted IMF officials. The Latin Business Chronicle has also placed Panama at the top of its Latin Business Index, thanks to $1.8 billion in direct foreign investment (DFI) in 2007. Panama beat out Chile, which saw more than $14 billion in DFI in 2007, taking the top spot for the higher proportion of investment to its GDP. Inflation, which has typically been very low for Panama thanks to a currency pegged to the US dollar, has risen in step with the recent devaluation of the US dollar. While 2007 saw an increase over the previous year, going from 2.5 per cent to 4.2 cent, Panama's inflation remained well below all other Latin American countries, which averaged 7.75 per cent. However, inflation reached nearly nine per cent in May of 2008, which the IMF largely attributes to rising food and fuel costs. |
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
How the Dutch do offshore banking
Sunday, Jun. 24, 2001
A Torrent of Dirty Dollars
In Willemstad, the sunny Caribbean capital of the Netherlands Antilles, a banker ushers an American visitor through a hotel casino and into a dining room overlooking the harbor. During refreshments, the prospective customer says he expects a six-figure cash windfall soon and would like to bring the money "quietly" into the U.S. At first the banker responds cautiously. "This money isn't, ah, tainted, is it?" When the American assures him it is not, the officer of the Curacao branch of the French-owned Credit Lyonnais Nederland smiles and orders another tonic water. In that case, says the banker, he can arrange a so-called Dutch sandwich.
Under this multilayered plan, the Paris bank would set up a corporation for the customer in Rotterdam, where he would deposit his cash in the bank's local branch. The American would control the newly created Dutch corporation through an Antilles trust company, but his identity as the owner would be protected by the island group's impenetrable secrecy laws. The Caribbean branch would then "lend" the American his own money held in Rotterdam.
If the American were questioned by the Internal Revenue Service or other authorities about the source of his wealth, he could point to his loan from a respected international bank. "Many of your largest corporations, many of your movie stars, do much the same thing here," says the banker. "We wouldn't want to handle criminal money, of course. But if it's just a matter of taxes, that is of no concern to us."
When U.S. drug agents tallied up the amount of cocaine they seized during fiscal 1989, their haul totaled 89 tons, or 44% more than last year's. The volume, which is believed to be only a small percentage of the tons flooding the country, is evidence of more than just a frighteningly effective drug- smuggling industry. The wholesale value of the coke, as much as $28 billion, is testimony to another kind of dark genius. This is the scandalous ability of the coke kingpins to launder billions of dollars in drug proceeds using many of the same financial services available to the FORTUNE 500. In a wash cycle that often takes less than 48 hours, the drug smugglers can turn coke-tinged $20 and $100 bills into such untraceable, squeaky-clean assets as money-market deposits, car dealerships and resort hotels.
The coke smugglers can accomplish this feat because they have plenty of help. They rely on a booming money-laundering industry that serves a clientele ranging from tax-avoiding corporations to the Iranscam schemers. The system depends on the collaboration, or often just the negligence, of bankers and other moneymen who can use electronic-funds networks and the secrecy laws of tax havens to shuffle assets with alacrity. The very institutions that could do the most to stop money laundering have the least incentive to do so. According to police and launderers, the basic fee for recycling money of dubious origin is 4%, while the rate for drug cash and other hot money is 7% to 10%.
Much is at stake as the powerful flow of narcodollars is recycled through the world's financial system. Drug lords and other lawbreakers are believed to be buying valuable chunks of the American economy, but clever Dutch sandwiches and other subterfuges make it almost impossible for U.S. authorities to track foreign investors. A case in point: blind corporations based in the Netherlands Antilles control more than one-third of all foreign-owned U.S. farmland, many of the newest office towers in downtown Los Angeles and a substantial number of independent movie companies producing films like Sylvester Stallone's Rambo pictures.
While businesses and individuals may conceal their assets for purposes that are completely legal, or dubious at worst, the systems set up for their convenience can be perversely efficient at helping drug barons launder as much as $100 billion a year in U.S. proceeds. "It is hard to understand why we failed for so long to institute adequate controls," says Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry, chairman of the Senate's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations. The state of regulation is "so lackadaisical," says Kerry, "it's almost damnable."
President Bush, for his part, has declared money launderers a critical target in the war on drugs, allocating $15 million to launch a counteroffensive. While the sum is minuscule for the task, the declaration signals a change in philosophy for the Administration, which had resisted calls for tighter banking regulations. Only hours after Bush unveiled his antidrug offensive last September, a federal task force began taking shape. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) hopes to zero in on money launderers with computer programs capable of spotting suspicious movements of electronic money.
In a high-tech game of cat and mouse, the Justice Department said last week that it had found and triggered the freezing of $60.1 million in bank accounts in five countries that contained the personal income of Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, a leader of the Medellin cartel. Using financial records and computer disks captured by the Colombian government, U.S. agents traced Rodriguez money to accounts in the U.S., Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria and Britain.
Drug Enforcement Administration officials told TIME that one of Rodriguez's purported financial advisers, Panama-based Mauricio Vives, tried desperately to keep moving the money one step ahead of the agents. Vives called a British banker and told him to move several million dollars, fast, to an account in Luxembourg. If the bank were to delay, his Colombian client would kill him, Vives pleaded. The banker refused, and British authorities cooperating with the DEA froze the account. Not all countries were as helpful. U.S. agents said they tracked Rodriguez's money to the Cayman Islands, Spain and Montserrat, but local authorities said they could not cooperate, citing rigid bank-secrecy laws as an excuse.
What makes enforcement so difficult is a financial murkiness that has long frustrated tax collectors as they search for dirty money afloat in the world's oceans of legitimate payments. The multibillion-dollar flow of black money, the profits from criminal enterprise, moves through the world's financial institutions as part of a vastly larger quantity of gray money, as bankers call it. This dubious, laundered cash amounts to an estimated $1 trillion or more each year. Often legitimately earned, this money has an endless variety of sources: an Argentine businessman who dodges currency-control laws to get his savings out of the country; a multinational corporation that seeks to "minimize" its tax burden by dumping its profits in tax-free havens; a South African investor who wants to avoid economic sanctions; an East German Communist leader who stashed a personal nest egg in Swiss bank accounts; or even the CIA and KGB when they need to finance espionage or covert activities overseas.
The world's prosperity depends on a fluid and unfettered financial system, yet the lack of supervision is producing a large shadow economy. The IRS estimates that tax cheats skim as much as $50 billion a year from legitimate cash-generating businesses and launder the money to avoid detection. Banking experts calculate that the private citizens of debt-choked Latin American countries have smuggled more than $200 billion of their savings abroad in the past decade.
The money-laundering process, especially in the drug trade, begins with greenbacks. Much of the cash simply leaves the U.S. in luggage, since departing travelers are rarely searched. Larger shipments are flown out on private planes or packed in seagoing freight containers, which are almost never inspected. That explains, in part, why U.S. officials are unable to locate fully 80% of all the bills printed by the Treasury. Once overseas, the cash is easy to funnel into black markets, especially in unstable economies where the dollar is the favored underground currency.
But hauling cash out of the U.S. has its drawbacks. The interest revenue lost while cash is in transit pains a drug dealer as much as it would a corporate financial officer. And since narcotraffickers see America as a safe and profitable haven for their assets, they often launder and invest their cash in the U.S. The first and trickiest step is depositing the hot cash in a U.S. financial institution. Reason: the IRS requires all banks to file Currency Transaction Reports for deposits of $10,000 or more. During the early 1980s, launderers got around this scrutiny by employing couriers called Smurfs, named for the restless cartoon characters, who would fan out and make multiple deposits of slightly less than $10,000.
The Government now requires banks to keep an eye out for Smurfs, but launderers have developed new techniques. Since retail businesses that collect large amounts of cash are often exempt from the $10,000 rule, launderers have created front companies or collaborated with employees of such outlets as 7 Elevens and Computer-Land stores. To drug dealers, "an exempt rating is like gold," says a Wells Fargo Bank vice president. A restaurant that accepts no checks or credit cards can be an ideal laundering machine. Even a front business with no exemption is valuable because launderers can file the CTRs in the knowledge that they are unlikely to attract scrutiny, since the Government is swamped with 7 million such reports a year, up from fewer than 100,000 a decade ago. Other places where drug dealers can often dump their cash include the currency exchange houses along the Southwest border and urban check- cashing and money-transmittal stores.
Once the money is in a financial institution, it can be moved with blinding speed. Communicating with the bank via fax machine or personal computer, a launderer can have wire transfers sent around the world without ever speaking to a banking officer. The goal of many launderers is to get their money into the maelstrom of global money movements, where the volume is so great that no regulators can really monitor it all. Such traffic has exploded because of the globalization of the world economy, which has multiplied the volume of international trade and currency trading. On an average working day, the Manhattan-based Clearing House for Interbank Payments System handles 145,500 transactions worth more than $700 billion, a 40% increase in just two years.
Much of the electronic money zips into a secret banking industry that got its start in Switzerland in the 1930s as worried Europeans began shifting their savings beyond the reach of Hitler's Third Reich. Later the country's infamous numbered accounts became a hugely profitable business. Chiasso, a quaint Swiss town of 8,700 inhabitants on the Italian border, has 18 banking offices. But during the past few years, Swiss secrecy has been weakened by a series of cases involving money laundering. Switzerland is now preparing a new law that will make money laundering a crime punishable by prison terms. Explains Jean-Paul Chapuis, executive director of the Swiss Bankers Association: "Our hope is that the criminals will go to another country."
They apparently are, since many small countries have successfully attracted banking business by creating discreet, tax-free havens. In Luxembourg total bank deposits have grown from $40 billion in 1984 to more than $100 billion last year. In the wake of a drug-money scandal involving the Florida operations of Luxembourg-based Bank of Credit and Commerce International, the country has tried to burnish its public image by declaring money laundering a criminal offense, even while it has fortified its bank-secrecy rules.
The most inventive havens allow investors to set up shell corporations with invisible owners, which means that high rollers can secretly stash their money in real estate, corporate stock and other assets. The Netherlands Antilles, with cash flowing steadily from banking centers in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, is a favorite financial center for investors seeking a low profile. Many Hollywood filmmakers love the arrangement, since movie profits can be diverted to a nearly tax-free setting. Many actors, producers and directors set up so- called personal-service companies in the Antilles so they can collect their paychecks through such corporations and avoid U.S. taxes. "It has to be structured very carefully, since the rules are tortuously complicated, but it is legal," says a top entertainment lawyer. However, the IRS may take a closer look after your story comes out."
Just as Hollywood paychecks pour into these havens to avoid taxes, mystery money flows out in search of well-paying investments. "The man I'm working with now," says a prominent screenwriter, "is an American representing vaguely described movie and cable interests in Europe who seem to have a waterfall of money from banks in Luxembourg and Amsterdam. He's all over town offering unlimited financing, but he won't show up himself at any of the meetings with the networks or studios."
Dozens of islands, from Britain's chilly Isle of Man to Vanuatu in the South Pacific, have boosted their economies by turning into havens for money. While narcotics traffickers launder their dollars through so-called brass-plate companies on these islands, the main business of the tax-free offshore havens is servicing some of the world's largest multinational corporations. "The idea is to put profits where there are the least taxes. Everybody does it," explains the president of a major U.S. corporation's foreign subsidiary.
One technique for minimizing taxes is a quasi-legal fabrication called reinvoicing, a paper shuffle that enables companies to rebook sales and profits into tax havens. For example, one FORTUNE 500 corporation imports raw materials through an offshore dummy company, which buys shipments at the lowest possible price and resells the material to the parent firm at a high markup. This dumps profits in the tax haven, while the U.S.-based company can boost its apparent costs to reduce taxes on the mainland. The profits can then be repatriated in the form of tax-free "loans" from offshore entities to the U.S. parent corporation.
While the IRS tolerates such schemes up to a point, the U.S. Government has tried to choke the river of drug money flowing through the same channels. Yet laundering hot spots tend to be moving targets. After the U.S. negotiated new treaties with Bermuda and Cayman authorities to allow limited access to banking records in narcotics cases, many of the launderers found new havens.
As the financial center of gravity in the world has shifted toward the Pacific Rim, new tax and secrecy havens have multiplied on such remote islands as Nauru in the western Pacific and Palau and Truk in Micronesia. Citizens of Vanuatu, a volcanic archipelago of some 80 islands formerly known as the New Hebrides, have found that international finance beats coconut and taro farming. In Port Vila, the capital, it is not unusual for a $100 million transaction between major international banks to take place on any given day.
Still, Hong Kong remains the pre-eminent laundering center in the Pacific. Almost everyone there does it, usually legitimately, at least according to the laws of Hong Kong, where even insider trading is no crime. By the puritan standards of the U.S., says one American banker, "the lack of public disclosure here is scandalous." The city is a mecca for arms dealers, drug traffickers and business pirates of every description. "Where else could I broker a deal that involves machine guns from China, gold from Taiwan and shipments traded in Panama City?" says a Brazilian arms merchant who maintains an apartment in Hong Kong.
In the U.S. a money-laundering center can be spotted by the huge surplus of cash that flows into the local branch of the Federal Reserve System. In 1985 the Miami branch posted a $6 billion excess. But after several years of intense federal probes of South Florida banks, Miami's cash glut fell last year to $4.5 billion. Much of the business went to Los Angeles, where the cash surplus ballooned from $166 million in 1985 to $3.8 billion last year. Despite such rocketing growth, the staffing of federal law-enforcement offices in L.A. still lags far behind the levels in Miami or New York City.
Both in the U.S. and abroad, financial businesses and even governments are often reluctant to impose regulations to keep out launderers. One reason is that a thriving financial industry brings jobs and income. South Florida's 100 international banks employ 3,500 workers and pump $800 million into the local economy. Even more appealing is the inflow of foreign capital. During the spend-and-borrow era of the 1980s, the gusher of flight capital into the U.S. from Latin America helped finance America's deficits. As in Hollywood, not many politicians were concerned about where the money was coming from. Alarmed by the tide, House Democrat John Bryant of Texas has long pushed for legislation to require disclosure of the identity of foreign investors. But for years, the Reagan Administration refused to go along, claiming that such openness might scare away capital.
Now that a consensus is building that the U.S. must pick out the black money from the gray, the tools at hand seem minimal for the task. Says Jaime Chavez, an international banking consultant: "The people who will probably be searching for it have a very limited knowledge of what money movement is all about. How is a third-rate employee of the Justice Department going to dissect the entire financial system to pinpoint the drug money correctly?" During the Reagan years, the budgets of agencies in charge of ctaching financial cheats failed to keep pace with the changing world of money manipulation. Even IRS agents are largely unprepared for the task of tracking transactions that can involve four or five banks, several shell companies and two or more currencies.
Few agents can be spared because IRS employees are working overtime to contain an explosion of smaller-time money-laundering cases involving car salesmen, ordinary investors, real estate agents and other entrepreneurs. In Florida undercover IRS agents operating a sting operation that they touted as a "full-service financial-investment corporation" have nabbed 50 would-be money launderers in the past year. "Some are lawyers and businessmen who are skimming cash from their businesses, and they've heard about what you can do through an offshore bank," says Tampa IRS supervisor Morris Dittman. "Others have cash that rolls out of the drug trade. When a druggie buys a big home and car for cash, you have a real estate agent and a salesman with sudden cash, and they begin wondering if they have to share it with the Government."
Such amateurs are running afoul of laws that professionals have already discovered. The statutes began tightening in 1986, when money laundering became a specific crime. Later it became illegal to evade the $10,000 currency-reporting requirements by making groups of smaller deposits. Banks have begun to exercise more internal supervision as well, prodded by a series of investigations in the mid-1980s in which such institutions as Bank of America and Bank of Boston were forced to pay hefty fines for their involvement in laundering schemes. Yet many major banks are still participants, witting or not, in ever more sophisticated laundering operations.
To close the gap, Bush's offensive against drug-cash handlers is being placed in the hands of a newly created task force that includes the CIA, the National Security Agency and the Pentagon, as well as a team of drug, tax and customs agents. FINCEN is already at work in a crowded Virginia office littered with discarded coffee cups, overflowing ashtrays, computer terminals and maps of the world. "We're going to be a financial think tank to help train cops who are deluged in financial data," says Gene Weinschenk, acting director of FINCEN's research-and-development division. "We're looking for money, not dope."
The biggest problem may be in deciding how to handle all the borderline illegality the task force will find. "How do you separate drug money from capital-flight money?" asks one of the mavens. "It will be more than drug money we come up with, and what happens when we stumble over a really major company and hold up its dirty linen? Maybe the banks will start turning in the narcotics people rather than lose their biggest customers."
To make a dent in the money-laundering trade, authorities will need more support from the financial community. "They're now willing to tell us about people coming in with bags of cash," says a regulator, "but as far as anything else goes, you can forget it." Yet many bankers think the feds have become indiscriminate in their crackdown. "They are characterizing traditional, ordinary, international banking transactions as money laundering," gripes Gerald Houlihan, a Miami attorney who represents financial institutions in money-laundering and forfeiture cases. "They are not going after money launderers, but are attempting to terrorize banks in an effort to give the impression they are doing something about drugs."
U.S. bankers rightly point out that they must abide by relatively strict currency-reporting laws, while their counterparts in other countries play fast and loose. That discrepancy has prompted Washington to try to persuade the rest of the banking world to adopt the record-keeping system used by American institutions.
The biggest push could come from the provisions of the Kerry Amendment to the 1988 anti-drug abuse act. The law requires the Treasury Secretary to negotiate bilateral agreements on money-laundering detection and prevention with all U.S. trading partners. Countries that refuse to participate or that negotiate in bad faith could conceivably be excluded from the U.S. banking network and clearinghouses. Yet in hearings earlier this year, Assistant Treasury Secretary Salvatore Martoche indicated that the Bush Administration is reluctant to enforce the law zealously for fear of hampering the U.S. banking industry.
But there is more at risk than the dislocation of business as usual. Many experts believe the financial stability and national security of whole countries will be in jeopardy until the problem is solved. Says the head of the Italian treasury police, General Luigi Ramponi: "Now that they are too rich, the drug lords will start investing everywhere: in industry, in the stock market." In the U.S. some lawmakers have begun worrying about the impact of billions of drug dollars invested in U.S. institutions and wonder what influence the drug barons might eventually exert.
The money-laundering game is also creating a mess for investigators of other crimes, who are running into dead ends when they try to identify the players in fraud cases. Beverly Hills police are stymied by last August's Mob-style assassination of Hollywood entertainment executive Jose Menendez and his wife Kitty, who were shotgunned in the front room of their mansion. Menendez had been an executive and director of Carolco Pictures, an independent movie company that produced Sylvester Stallone's Rambo movies, and police have been unable to unravel his business affairs or identify all his partners. Carolco is controlled by a Netherlands holding company that is, in turn, owned by a tangle of offshore family trusts.
Financial experts are beginning to recognize that Washington will be unable to control drug money unless the U.S. compels offshore financial institutions to make their books "transparent" enough to show the true owners of the money. In the end, the Colombian drug cartels are about to force the world to re-examine the international financial system that has developed haphazardly over the 60 years since the Swiss first popularized secret banking. Countries may not yet be willing to make their banking transactions fully "transparent," but some light must be shed on everyone's books. Says Kerry: "It will take significant leverage and leadership. The President has to have the top bankers in and say, 'Unless you are part of the solution, you are part of the problem.' "
Yet there is still a deep-seated reluctance to take drastic measures. Briefing reporters after a Paris conclave on money laundering last September, a senior U.S. official declared that global efforts to trace drug money will have to be balanced against the freedom from unnecessary red tape. Too many controls, he declared, could "constipate" the financial exchanges. That is the kind of attitude that has brought the system to its current state, in which drug money freely mingles with the life force of the world economy, like a virus in the bloodstream.
With reporting by Reported by Jay Branegan/Hong Kong, S.C. Gwynne/Detroit and Jeanne McDowell/Los Angeles
Full text in http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,150811,00.html
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Favorite offshore banking videos
A video by Banca di San Marino
Claudia Meier, Analyst at the bank Vontobel. She follows private banking and wealth management in Switzerland for the bank Vontobel. Claudia is at the origin of the much followed “Wealth Manager Report”, which she launched in 2004.
When your bank treats you like a number, email them a video: "What Can Private Banking Learn from a Top Swiss Grand Hotel"
How NOT to do private banking. Trailer of the Feature Film "I Was a Swiss Banker": Roger smuggles black money in a red bag across the border for reinvestment.
The British angle on Swiss banking by Mr Floppy.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Panama law firm Advises in Securing Remittance License
Panama attorneys Lombardi Aguilar & Garcia advised a company in securing a license granted by the Panamanian government to operate a remittance agent.
Panama City, Panama, November 12, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Lombardi Aguilar & Garcia (www.laglex.com) attorneys advised a U.S.-owned subsidiary, in the process of obtaining a remittance agent license from the Directorate of Financial Enterprises of the Panama Ministry of Commerce and Industries (www.mici.gob.pa).
Although Panama hosts a financial center which has no limits on the repatriation of funds and use of foreign curencies, its government has enacted Law 48 of 2003 which requires that non-bank companies receiving funds on a regular basis for their remittance abroad through systems for transfer or tranmission of funds, settlement of funds or any other means, obtain a special license from the Directorate. This ensures that operators receiving funds for electronic transactions systems have information on their ownership, financial solvency and anti-money laundering measures subject to regular review and supervision by a government authority. The Directorate also provides special licenses for lending companies.
The participation of the law firm consisted in the filing, preparation and coordination of the process for obtaining the license to operate a remittance agent. The clients of the law firm are dedicated to offering innovative solutions, payment methods and transactional processing environments for financial entities, banking, government, merchants and consumers. The license holder also markets a variety of solutions oriented to the transactional processing and electronic payment methods environments applied to several technological platforms and markets, for local as well as regional use.
According to statistics of the Directorate of Financial Enterprises, Panama received US$81.4 million in remittances (largely US$46.8 million from the US) during the first half of 2007. US$66.3 million are sent to other countries (mostly US$26.3 million to Colombia by migrants of said country). Already a dozen companies are authorized by the DEF to provide remittance services.
About Lombardi Aguilar & Garcia
Lombardi Aguilar & Garcia was created as an alternative for clients worldwide who seek fast, innovative and effective solutions to their legal problems. The firm currently provides services to individual and corporate clients in Panama as well in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Its partners maintain a commitment with professional ethics and social responsibility by participating in the board of directors of groups such as the Panama Bar Association, the German and the American Chambers of Commerce (AMCHAM) of Panama, and the Association of Chinese-Panamanian Professionals (APROCHIPA).
The firm centers its law practice in private client services and asset protection (Private Interest Foundations, Trusts), business structures (Offshore Corporations), tax planning, real estate and e-commerce. It also advices in areas of Law such as Corporate, Commercial, Intellectual Property, Maritime, Tax, and Immigration Law as well as related litigation that may arise.
For more information, contact +507 340-6444, e-mail aaguilar (at) nysbar.com, or see: Lombardi Aguilar & Garcia http://www.laglex.com/
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Monday, November 03, 2008
CNBC covers Latin Fever in Panama
With real estate bubbles bursting across Europe, investors are heading for booming Latin America, says Sorrel Downer
The service, natural resource and manufacturing sectors got the lion's share of the €67bn in foreign direct investment poured into the region last year, but there has been sustained growth in the real estate sector that doesn't look like easing off, and it's real estate that is regarded by many analysts as one of Latin America's best performing assets.
The UK has been slow to go to Latin America. "Sitting here in London," says Thompson, "very few people in charge of funds have Latin America on their radar, mainly because there's very little experience of doing business there, and more interest in Asia and Russia. But people are putting a toe in the water. We're starting in Brazil because of the size and stability, but also looking at places like Costa Rica and Panama - countries where there is genuine wealth, inflation is under control and there's a boom in real estate underpinned by a growing middle class."
Investors see the potential of real estate in Panama City's old quarter, now undergoing renovation, funded partly by foreign capital. But then Panama is full of positive signs: the expansion of the canal, proposals for refineries, and the development of banking, communications, tourism, and call centre industries evoke a certain optimism. Already, there are so many prestigious tower block developments underway along the shoreline of the Bay of Panama that there's talk of a glut. But enterprising investors are finding solid alternatives: financing office developments, for example, sometimes on a large scale such as the €435m 'mini-town' project on a former military base in the Canal Zone for which UK firm London & Regional Properties beat off 16 international competitors; or residential investments in exclusive gated communities and resorts up the coast, on the Azueros Peninsula, and on the Pearl Islands, or retirement communities in the temperate mountains around Boquete.
New arrivals to Panama will find themselves in hot competition with homegrown investors, as well as the North American firms squeezed out from Costa Rica, where land prices have rocketed and prime beachfront land parcels have been snapped up.
http://www.cnbceb.com/ViewArticle.aspx?PageID=1238
Monday, October 27, 2008
Re : new laws - question on migration
1. In theory one could leave just before the end of the 90 days and reenter. However, upon reentry an immigration official can take a hard look at the cluttered rubber stamps and bar entry for abuse of the 90-day term (I have never heard of it happening in Panama but it does happen in the US). 2. From the short stay, I have a feeling you did not wait long enough to have your picture taken for your 3-month card and you were supposed to get a Multiple Entry Permit under the old law. Depending on when you return, you may have to pay a fine. De: Shari1551 |
Monday, October 20, 2008
Yellow Fever vaccination recommendations
After much contradiction from a Ministry of Health and the chaotic implementation of a vaccination program, the yellow fever vaccination is no longer required for all travelers entering or leaving Panama. Under Communique 3 and Resolution 840 of 2008, effective November 1, 2008, the vaccination is RECOMMENDED for travelers:- departing Panama to Bolivia, Brasil, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú and Venezuela in South América, and Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Camerun, Congo D.R., Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Sudan in Africa,
- travelling to Panama province East, San Blas and Darien province.
The good intentions of the vaccination were overshadowed by thousands of complaints by taxpayers from long lines at MINSA vaccination centers and an irrational limit of 300 vaccinations per day.While Panama may not make the vaccination compulsory, other countries may demand that travellers coming from Panama have the yellow WHO International Vaccination Certificate.
http://www.minsa.gob.pa/minsa2008/final_newpage/fiebreamarilla_main.html
Disorganization and long lines at MINSA vaccination translation of mensual.prensa.com/mensual/contenido/2008/09/30/hoy/panorama/1538211.html">
WHO List of Yellow Fever countries
Sunday, October 19, 2008
移民新法例為民眾解決問題還是增加障礙？
2007的第五條新法令包含了外國僑民移民和入籍的新法
規。 關於簽證方面，主要分成四類：
非居民 （旅客，過境客)。 »
臨時居民 （技術人員,傳道人,外交人仕）。 »
永久居民 （投資者, 配偶)。 »
受巴拿馬政府庇護之外國人仕（難民, 被孤立者）。 »
通常，所有的外國人都以非居留簽證入境巴拿馬, 然後再申
請臨時或永久居留.
有了新法令，國家移民服務局應該在60個工作日的時間內
解決所有臨時或永久居留的允許證申請。發現資料不完全或
有缺陷的申請時，從發通知那天算起，給予15天工作日的期限
讓申請者來改正。
入籍
國家憲法只要求入籍申請者於巴拿馬居住有超過五年以上
時間，能說西班牙文以及認識巴拿馬歷史。然而，法律卻新增
了以下的要求：
請授權律師代為申請，申請書上還必須表明願意不可撤銷
的放棄原籍。根據
2001年擬定的律師收費表，此項服務需付$2000美元。 »
證人在巡迴審判法庭的法官面前做司法程序以外的五 »
項聲明，證人可以聲明與申請人非親屬關係，證明申請
人在巴拿馬居住超過五年時間 並且行為良好（如申請人
是與巴拿馬籍人仕結婚，甚至有了兒女，那麼要求的居
住年數則為三年）。
移民現狀證明書。 »
由司法技術調查警局 (P.T.J.)核發之無犯罪紀錄證書。 »
一般體檢以證明沒有精神病或傳染病。 »
生活擔保書:出示銀行信，工作信，需附上社保局 (C.S.S.) »
的繳稅收據或支票存根，或者入息稅證明。
出生證明，或者提供有關進入巴拿馬境內紀錄的護照。 »
兩張證件照，拍照時需穿著整齊。 »
一旦經行政院批核申請入籍信函，需付$600劃線印花稅 »
票。
在申請條件基於與巴拿馬籍人士結婚三年的時間的情況 »
下，需備結婚證書或於巴拿馬出生的兒女之出生證書。
新法律廢除了五個證人的聲明，愛滋病病毒(HIV) 和梅毒檢
驗。 然而卻增加了更多的條件：
沒有犯罪前科, 或在最後五年曾居住過的國家或本國有 »
被逮捕紀錄之證明。
由移民局頒發的經公正鑑定過之永久居民身分證複印 »
件。
與申請人單獨面談。 »
國家清稅證。
有了以上的必要條件後， 司政局將會下令呈交第二份
移民現狀證明和西班牙語及巴拿馬歷史測驗。 如入籍申
請遭拒批， 將不可上訴或獲復批。
入籍程序被新聞日報 (Diario La Prensa) 的一位提供消
息人仕形容為“極度官僚化”， 因為入籍獲得批核的時間
應該是幾個月,然而有一些個案卻用了五年時間來批核”。
消息人仕還表示， 在目前的行政管理期間， 申請入巴拿
馬籍之人數明顯下降。 於2004年批核了527個案； 2005年.
413個； 2006年300個； 而於2007年只有97個。
消息人仕建議國家移民服務局務必加快辦理入籍文件
的速度， 提高辦事效率， 這樣才會給願意獲得巴拿馬國
籍的人仕有個公平的交代。
作者是 Alvaro Agular Alfu, 是Lombardi
Aguilar & Garcia 法律事務所合夥人兼律
師 www.laglex.com
Sunday, October 12, 2008
A bequest for Panama's poor children - blocked by family
A bequest for Panama's poor children - blocked by family
PANAMA CITY: In life, Wilson Lucom was not exactly child-friendly. The curmudgeon never had children himself, nor was he especially close to the offspring of his third wife, Hilda. When he opened his ample checkbook, friends say, it was more likely to finance a conservative political cause than to help underprivileged youth.
But Lucom, a native of rural Pennsylvania who spent much of his life in Palm Beach, Florida, surprised everyone in his will, which was disclosed upon his death two years ago at the age of 88. After doling out relatively small portions of his tens of millions of dollars to survivors, he left the rest to a foundation he had dreamed up in secrecy to aid the poor children of Panama, where he spent the final years of his life.
It would be one of the largest charitable donations, if not the largest, in Panama's history, but so far not a single child has had access to the money. The will has set off a vicious legal battle that is playing out in at least four countries. Criminal charges have been filed, insults traded and threats made. The number of law firms involved exceeds 20.
"This is all about greed," said Hector Avila, an advocate for at-risk children in Panama who organized a demonstration of young people in May outside the Supreme Court in Panama, calling for Lucom's gift to be honored. Within a week of the protest, Avila survived a shooting. No link to the Lucom case was established.
Lucom married well, amassing a fortune when his second wife, Virginia Willys, whose father had been an Ohio auto tycoon, died in 1981. A year later, Lucom met and wed Hilda Piza, who had been married previously to Gilberto Arias, son of Harmodio Arias and nephew of Arnulfo Arias, both former presidents of Panama.
Lucom eventually relocated with his new wife to Panama, selling his Palm Beach mansion in 1990 to a relative of the king of Saudi Arabia for $14.3 million.
Lucom used his money to bankroll anti-Communist groups, and he helped found the conservative watchdog group Accuracy in Media. In his later years, he frequently wrote commentaries that showed his firm opinions, some of them decidedly unconventional, on the ways of the world.
Dropping nuclear weapons was one of his preferences for making things right in the world. Catching Osama bin Laden was as simple, he argued, as putting a $1 billion bounty on his head.
In his will, he spelled out how he thought the malnutrition facing one-fifth of Panama's children could be combated. His plan was to buy seeds, supply them to parent volunteers who agreed to donate idle land and then reap the harvests for hungry children.
Whether his idea had merit may never be known. Lucom's 84-year-old widow, Hilda, is fighting to have his will thrown out. The issue is now before Panama's highest court, with legal skirmishes also playing out in Palm Beach, and the Caribbean nations of St. Kitts and Nevis and the British Virgin Islands also involved.
The controversy begins with a charitable act that may have at least partly been rooted in spite. Friends say that Lucom was not on particularly good terms with his third wife's adult children when he died, which is hinted at in the will.
In it, he granted his wife a monthly pension of $20,000 and use of his artwork, grand piano and furniture for as long as she lives. He gave her five children, descendants of the Arias family, one-time payments of $50,000 to $200,000 each. As for the 7,000-acre, or 2,800-hectare, oceanfront cattle ranch that he had bought from the Arias family, he wanted that sold, with the assets going to the poor.
In interviews, the Arias offspring do not let on that there was any clash between them and the man they alternatively refer to as "Mr. Lucom," "Chuck" or "Uncle Chuck."
But Lucom's widow is more candid. "He was a very difficult man," she said in an interview. "He wanted to be No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3."
She added, in a frail voice, "He never talked to me about poor children."
The only support Wilson Lucom had given to children previously, the family said, was the $100 he would spend to buy two books of raffle tickets for a children's charity that Hilda Lucom's granddaughter, Madelaine Urrutia, helped run.
But in the will, prepared a year before his death, Lucom appeared to leave no doubt about his intentions. Panamanian courts have backed the will so far, but the issue is now before the country's Supreme Court, which critics say has shown itself susceptible to political interference in the past.
"If you ask me if I expect to win it in light of all the corruption I've seen, I don't expect to win it," said Lehman, who has been suspended by the court as the executor of the will pending a resolution of the legal case.
Lucom also willed $1 million to the Mayo Clinic, which had treated him for cancer. The clinic, in Minnesota, has hired a lawyer to ensure that it gets the money. Other amounts went to former household employees and to friends, including Christopher Ruddy, founder of NewsMax Media, which published many of Lucom's writings online. Ruddy, who owed Lucom more than $1 million at the time of his death, has hired lawyers to represent his interests.
Lawyers for the Arias family say there is more to the story than a crotchety old man using his fortune to make good with the world. They contend that the will was a scheme concocted by Lehman, the lawyer, to enrich himself.
Just days before Lucom died, on June 2, 2006, Lehman created a trust to administer the children's charity fund. He created it in St. Kitts and Nevis, a Caribbean tax haven where Lucom had gained citizenship to avoid paying U.S. taxes.
...So far, though, the children have received nothing. While Panama's capital, coastline and Canal Zone are bustling with development, dire poverty grips much of the country's interior. Unicef estimates that more than half the country's children younger than 5 live in poverty and nearly a third in extreme poverty. Malnutrition affects about 20 percent of young children, with more than half of indigenous children underweight.
Amid the finger-pointing have been hardball tactics. Hilda Lucom's politically connected attorney, Hector Infante, has filed criminal charges against Lehman and a Panamanian colleague, accusing them of playing a role in Lucom's death and engaging in extortion, among other offenses.
One of Infante's associates even called up the Panama office of Interpol and managed to get Lehman's colleague detained while he was on a business trip. The lawyer was soon released when Interpol discovered that the charges had been dismissed.
With other charges pending, Lehman now stays out of Panama for fear he might be arrested. He has countersued the Arias family, accusing them of using the family-run newspaper, El Panama America, to libel him.
If there is a benefit to all the legal wrangling, it is that the value of Lucom's oceanfront cattle ranch has risen significantly since he died, possibly even quadrupling to $80 million. Settlement negotiations have taken place, but gotten nowhere.
As Lehman put it in a letter to Hilda Lucom seeking to make a deal, "I believe this is a pie that is so large that it can take into account everyone's feeling and rights to their entitlement to benefit from Lucom's fortune."
Full text in http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/25/america/panama.php?page=2
Legal Battles Tie Up Money Left for Poor Children in Panama
June 25, 2008
Legal Battles Tie Up Money Left for Poor Children in Panama
A gift of tens of millions of dollars to a foundation to help needy children in Panama has been tied up in disputes involving over 20 law firms, the Panamanian courts, and the donor’s surviving family, reports The New York Times. The donation — from the will of Wilson C. Lucom, who died two years ago at the age of 88 — is the bulk of his estate.
“This is all about greed,” said Hector Avila, an advocate for needy children in Panama, who survived a shooting within a week of a protest he led in May to push the court to honor Mr. Lucom’s gift.
Panamanian courts have so far expressed support for the will, but critics remain wary of potential corruption. “If you ask me if I expect to win in light of all the corruption I’ve seen, I don’t expect to win it,” said Richard S. Lehman, a longtime lawyer to Mr. Lucom who is now caught in the middle of the battle and who has been suspended by a Panamanian judge as the executor of the will.
Mr. Lucom’s widow, Hilda Lucom, 84, who received a $20,000 monthly pension and the use of his artwork and furniture, is fighting for his will to be dismissed. “He never talked to me about poor children,” said Ms. Lucom, who added in a court deposition, “He didn’t like children.”
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Sunday, October 05, 2008
Yellow Fever vaccination requirements (more)
The CDC and the Canada Public Health Agency further explain the use of the International Certificate of Vaccination (Certificados Internacionales de Vacunacion / Certificats Internationaux de Vaccination) card for yellow fever and cholera. These vaccines are usually available only from state travel clinics and not from private clinics.
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http://www.copaair.com/nuestraEmpresa/noticias/noticia.aspx?Id=145&lang=en
On Fri, 10/3/08, Panama, ACS Subject: PANAMA-TRAVELERS MUST BE VACCINATED AGAINST YELLOW FEVER
Date: Friday, October 3, 2008, 2:49 PM
UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION - TRAVELERS MUST BE VACCINATED AGAINST YELLOW FEVER
Attention hours for those who need the vaccine are Monday through Friday, from 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and the cost is five dollars. Passengers in transit and coming from countries that are not included in the list of 45 countries with risk of yellow fever transmission, according the World Health Organization's (WHO) classification, are not required to have the international vaccination card against this disease.
For this vaccine to be effective it must be applied 10 days before the stipulated travel date and the dose duration (efficient protective titers) is 10 years.
The health measure announced by the Ministry of Health, of requesting as of next November 1, that all national or foreign travelers that enter Panama from countries with risk of yellow fever transmission be vaccinated, seeks to prevent the resurgence of the disease in the country.
It is necessary to remember that the last cases of sylvan yellow fever in Panama were registered in 1974 and the Ministry of Health tries to comply with what is established in the 2005 International Health Regulation (RSI), in preventing the spreading of epidemics and improving cooperation among countries with that same objective. Its adaptation is oriented towards current world challenges in view of the reappearance of infectious diseases, of the growing risk of international spreading and of the appearance of new health alerts with worldwide repercussions.
According to the WHO, 111 countries (including Panama) require that persons who enter their territory from countries with risk of yellow fever transmission be vaccinated.
Panama has an established epidemiological monitoring of yellow fever, proper attention of suspect cases, continuous education to the health team on disease prevention and control, information, education and communication with the community of prevention and control measures of yellow fever, a viral, transmissible, preventable and acute infectious disease, of rapid evolution and variable seriousness that is transmitted through a mosquito bite. Next is a list of countries with risk of yellow fever transmission, according to the World Health Organization (WHO):
- American Continent
- Argentina
- Bolivia
- Brazil
- Colombia
- Ecuador
- French Guiana
- Guyana
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Suriname
- Venezuela
- African Continent
- Angola
- Liberia
- Benin
- Mali
- Burkina Faso
- Mauritania
- Burundi
- Niger
- Cameroon
- Nigeria
- Congo
- Rwanda
- Republic of Congo
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Senegal
- Central African Republic
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- Sudan
- Côte D'Ivoire
- Togo
- Equatorial Guinea
- Uganda
- United Republic of Tanzania
- Ethiopia
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Ghana
- Guinea
- Guinea Bissau
The list provided by the WHO of countries that request vaccination against yellow fever from international travelers that come from countries with risk of yellow fever transmission.
(From the Panamanian Ministry of Health)
CDC Health Information for International Travel 2008
Yellow Fever Vaccine Requirements and Information on Malaria Risk and Prophylaxis, by Country
| Country | Yellow Fever | Malaria | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Requirements1 | CDC recommendations2,4 | Area of risk | Chloroquine resistance | Recommended prophylaxis | |
| Panama | If traveling from an endemic zone | For all travelers >9 months of age traveling to the provinces of Darien, Kunayala (San Blas) and Panama (see Map 4-16), excluding the Canal Zone, Panama City and the San Blas Islands. | Risk exists in rural areas of Bocas Del Toro, Darién, San Blas provinces and San Blas Islands. No risk in Panama City or in the former Canal Zone. | Confirmed in Darién and San Blas provinces, including San Blas islands. | Chloroquine in Bocas Del Toro. Atovaquone/ proguanil; doxycycline; or mefloquine in Darién and San Blas. |
1Yellow fever vaccine entry requirements are necessary for travelers to comply with in order to enter the country. In general, these are in place to prevent importation and transmission of yellow fever virus. Countries requiring yellow fever vaccination for entry adhere to the regulations put forth by WHO as stated in the International Health Regulations. Some countries require vaccination for travelers coming from an endemic zone. “Traveling from an endemic zone” is defi ned as transit through an endemic zone in the previous 6 days. Country requirements are subject to change at any time; therefore, CDC encourages travelers to check with the appropriate embassy or consulate prior to departure.
2The information in the section on yellow fever vaccine recommendations is advice given by CDC to prevent yellow fever infections among travelers.
3Please note, the U.S. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends avoiding vaccination of infants.
4Recommendations are subject to change at any time if disease conditions change; therefore, CDC encourages travelers to check for relevant travel notices on the website www.cdc.gov/travel prior to departure.
Note: Country requirements are subject to change at any time; therefore, CDC encourages travelers to check with the appropriate embassy or consulate prior to departure.
See full text in http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/yellowBookCh5-MalariaYellowFeverTable.aspx
What are the Australian quarantine requirements for yellow fever vaccination?See full text in http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/Publishing.nsf/Content/health-pubhlth-strateg-communic-factsheets-yellow.htm
Yellow fever
The period of validity of the International Vaccination Certificate for yellow fever is 10 years, beginning 10 days after primary vaccination and immediately after re-vaccination. Only Yellow Fever Vaccination Centre clinics designated by PHAC can provide the International Certificate of Vaccination in Canada. A list of these centres can be obtained from PHAC's Travel Medicine Program Web site (http://www.travelhealth.gc.ca).
The decision to immunize against yellow fever will depend on the itinerary of the individual traveller and the specific requirements of the country to be visited (including stopovers). As well as being necessary for entry into certain countries, immunization against yellow fever is recommended for all travellers who are visiting or living in countries in Africa and South America where yellow fever infection is officially reported. It is also recommended for travel outside of urban areas in countries that do not officially report yellow fever but lie in the yellow fever endemic zones (see maps).
See full text in http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/cig-gci/p03-10-eng.php
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Yellow Fever vaccination requirements (cont.)
The Ministry of Health confirms the vaccination requirement effective NOVEMBER 1 (sic) in their website and also mentions 3 vaccination posts: - Región Metropolitana de Salud, in Corozal / Los Ríos, building 237; - Sanidad Marítima Internacional office at Cristóbal port, Colón; and - Coordinación Regional de Epidemiología office in David, Chiriquí. http://www.minsa.gob.pa/minsa2008/final_newpage/noticias.php?id=726
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This case is real and happening right now — it’s so hard to believe that the last Will of anyone can be overlooked and turn into such a nightmare. We can only pray that good will prevail over evil. I say hang in there Mr. Lehman! Remember . . .doing the right thing may not always be the most popular — but I pray for your success in this case. Read the 500 page legal exhibit presented to the jury in this case. The panama corruption is obvious. http://www.lucomchildren.com
All Americans should be watching this case.
— Mary Daultry Jun 26, 08:54 AM #