Panama-Washington money laundering talks

PANAMA Attorney General Kenya Porcell and Minister of Public Security, Alexis Bethancourt, met with the Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice, Kenneth White in Washington on Thursday, September 15.

White is the same official who in mid-June visited Panama to discuss  Nidal Waked, who was included in the Clinton List and was arrested in Bogota, Colombia, pending extradition to the United States, to face charges of money laundering and bank fraud.

The United States Department of the Treasury, through its Office of Foreign Assets (OFAC), identified Nidal and his uncle Abdul Waked as the ringleaders of The Waked Money Laundering Organization (Waked MLO).

According to a statement from Panama’s Public Ministry, the officials “discussed issues related to international collaboration between Panama and the United States as well as strategies for combating transnational organized crime”.

This meeting was held at the Department of Justice United States of America, in Washington D.C.

Also present were the ambassador of Panama in the USA, Emanuel Gonzalez Revilla, Undersecretary of the Attorney General’s Office, David Diaz Martin and Panama’s assistant Attorney  General Daniel Arroyo.