Pyramid conman gets 10 years jail time

Colombian David Eduardo Helmut Murcia Guzmán who defrauded  thousands of people in Panama and Colombia  through pyramid schemes has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Panama court

Murcia Guzmán was the brain behind and largest shareholder of DMG seduced savers with the promise of profits through a prepaid model. These savings generated interest when the owners of the money managed to get more people to enter the system.

The investigation began informally on November 19, 2008, by the Department of Operations of the Specialized Prosecutor for Drug-Related Crimes, which informed of the fact due to the journalistic deployment of social media national and international, pointing to Guzmán and his company, which carried out activities in Panama related to money laundering, as a result of the massive collection of funds from individuals, who was followed in the Republic of Colombia.

The elements of conviction provided gave evidence of a business activity dedicated to the commercial and habitual collection of money in exchange for receiving percentage benefits as dividends, whether consumer goods or percentage interest in a certain period of time, without being authorized and regulated for this, using various corporations, which transferred income among themselves, constituted and directed by David Murcia, who benefited from the activity, managed by the company led by Ernesto Chong, under a professional services contract.

According to the report of the Judicial Investigation Directorate (Money Laundering Division) that appears in the file, the DMG and related companies, in the periods 2006-2008, massively and habitually captured financial resources without authorization of $15,589,452.73 from 3,268 cardholders and 7,269 contracts, in the “pyramid” activity.

 The DMG company was linked to irregular groups related to drug trafficking that operated in  Colombia