Watch your wallet when talking to economic refugees

From the Sidelines

You meet them every day In Panama. Strangers from another land, even your own country, and many have a good story to tell. Beware.

 The "well heeled" smooth talker may have his eyes on your wallet. In extreme cases, like Wild Bill, he may be after your property … and your life.

Some high fliers tell the tale of coming to Panama to dodge the high taxes in their own country. But behind many tales there are skeletons in the closet, ranging from the IRS in the US to confrontations with the law. 

 We have endured multiple pyramid fraud artists, One David Murcia a Colombian is,now spending the first year of a 32-year sentence behind bars, and awaiting trial in the US on money laundering charges. While in Panama he had friends in high places, and even employed Presidential guards while cruising around town in one of his garage full of high end cars like Lamborginis and Ferraris (at least one of which has been used recently by government employees)

A de-frocked Canadian lawyer operated her own schemes for extracting money from fellow countryman, another Canadian with a record and coonections to the KKK  was running financial advisroy seminars. There is a grab bag of "economic" refugees.

One such, U.S. citizen Norreys Whalen, took a one way plane  trip to Miami on Thursday (August 12) but not to  the beach. He had been convicted of 12 counts of financial crimes in the US and, was deported  by the National Immigration Service.

Whalen, 53, was  escorted by Panamanian officials, The fugitive, who is wanted by the U.S. Marshall Service on twelve pending convictions in the state of Pennsylvania. He was arrested in his San Francisco apartment on Wednesday by  Immigration agents  and National Police, hopefully before being able to add more financial crimes to his list. One down, and how many more to go?
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