US Court rejects Panama drug-laundering appeal

Abdul Waked whose conglomerate once included Soho Mall, Felix Maduro and airport duty-free outlets across the region, has known since 2016 why the US Treasury Department considered them  “centers for laundering the profits of drugs through the smuggling of cash in large quantities and false commercial billing.

Waked has always claimed that the United States has not shown him the evidence that they supposedly had against him.

The revelation  came from the US   Federal Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, United States, which dismissed Waked’s lawsuit against John E. Smith, who until May 2018 served as director of the Office of Asset Control Abroad (OFAC,) of  the US Department of the Treasury.

The Court of Appeal confirmed a decision adopted on April 7, 2017 by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly – also from the District of Columbia, that the OFAC did not violate due process by including Waked’s businesses on the  Clinton list of activities linked to money laundering and drug trafficking, since he was notified of this fact in accordance with established administrative procedures.

The Court of Appeal maintains that on two occasions – on August 26 and October 28,2016- OFAC provided Waked  with summaries of the allegations that  motivated their inclusion in the list.

According to the OFAC, the stores operated by the Wisa Group -controlled by Waked- considered to be involved in the scheme were  specifically, Wisa’s premises at Tocumen, in Panama, and La Aurora in Guatemala.