Court took 4 years to OK money laundering probe
IT TOOK four years for Panama’s Supreme Court to accept a 2007, request from Colombian prosecutors for help in investigating the Waked Group (Wisa) for suspected money laundering activities, as it considered a blocking move by a lawyer for Waked.
Te lawyer is currently part of the Ricardo Martinelli defense team stalling attempts to bring the ex-president to trial on numerous charges.
The latest revelations published in La Prensa, cast a fresh shadow over Abdul Waked’s public statements that he had no knowledge that the family empire was being investigated.
In December 2007, The Colombia General Prosecutor’s Office sent a letter to Panama asking for information about Abdul Waked, his nephew, Nidal Waked, and companies in the Waked Group. The request sought information about the flow of money between Panama and Colombia. The request was opposed by lawyer ans current Parlacen deputy Carlos Carrillo .
The revelations come in the wake of news that the DEA opened an investigation into the Wakeds due to its links to a person who allegedly ran a network that smuggled money into Panama through Tocumen International Airport. That was prompted by an incident in August 2006 when a person was discovered bringing more than $200,000 into Panama.
The person at the head of the network, Ali Abd Fares Shaaban, said between $2 million and $4 million a week entered through Tocumen. He also linked the cash to the Waked Group through receipts and invoices found in his residence.
The plea for cooperation madeby Colombian authorities was based on “the preliminary investigation of the National Unit for Termination of Forfeiture and against Money Laundering “.
The names of people and companies they asked to investigate included Abdul Waked and Nidal Waked, the company Waked Internacional, all declared part of operations related to money laundering “.
The prosecutor had additional elements that made the order feasible. In August 2006, a Mexican carrying over $ 200,000 in undeclared cash was arrested.at Tocumen International.
In a controlled delivery of the money, two arrests were made , one of them, Ali Abd Fares Shaaban, who received money from the “mule”who boarded a flight from Mexico to Panama.
Fares Shaaban acknowledged that in the previous four or five years he had received between $2 million and $4 million a week through Tocumen.When his residence was raided, authorities seized receipts or invoices totaling $10 million dollars, “for many companies, including the Wisa Group, SA”, says a May 11 letter from the DEA director in Panama to the Public Ministry.
Colombian authorities, asked Panama for listings of customers or distributors of Waked International Group, S.A. in Colombia and their transactions and customer account statements over the previous t five years.
They called for a criminal background check of Abdul Mohamed Waked Fares, Sain Said Hamed Fares, Walid Ali Waked El Hage, Nidal Waked Hatum and Ali Mohamed Waked Fares, as well as a judicial inspection at the offices of products billing and marketinging to Colombia,
The Public Ministry granted the Colombian request in January 2008,
But those referred to in the request letter were not satisfied with the the resolution that agreeing to the request , and legal stalling moves were initiated. After four years the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Public Ministry.
The court noted that “”M oney laundering can only be displayed and researched by “detailed and thorough review of the books and accounts”, carried in companies that could be involved in illicit and by “austere revision of absolutely all documents, books and other elements of the company, such as resumes, spreadsheets payroll, medical affiliations, administrative acts, bind and unbind personal, personal data, mainly the residence of managers, employers and assigned workers “.
Consequently, the judges agreed that under the circumstances, “it is clear that the amplitude of the contested measure is consonant with the purpose of the investigation as it is given to assist in the investigation of the probable existence of money laundering”.
Consequently, the full Court did not accept the maneuvers of Carlos Carrillo.
With all this in play, Abdul Waked continues to deny any knowledge of investigations of the family operation, and his nephew, Nidal, in Colombia awaits extradition to the US, where prosecutors are calling for a 50-year jail term.