The 8 Taxpayers Whose Tax Credits Were Stolen by the E-Tax 2.0 Network: Operation Pandora
Operation Pandora: The investigation into the e-Tax 2.0 system, covering the period from 2022 to May 2025. It is still unknown whether the DGI notified any of the affected companies of what happened or whether they already knew that their tax credits had been “cancelled”.
Operation Pandora is a major corruption investigation in Panama. Authorities uncovered a criminal network that manipulated the General Directorate of Revenue’s (DGI) digital E-Tax 2.0 system to illegally erase tax debts and generate over $40 million in fraudulent tax credits. Because the investigation is an ongoing organized crime and corruption probe, exact names or detailed profiles of the affected taxpayers have not been officially published to protect the integrity of the case. However, official reports outline the following details about the scheme:
- The Mechanism: DGI officials allegedly collaborated with private lawyers and fixers. They manipulated the E-Tax platform to alter the tax records of large, often unsuspecting, accounts—moving balances into “unapplied payments” and re-registering them as legitimate tax credits.
- The Liquidation: These manufactured tax credits were then illegally transferred to third parties and used to offset tax obligations or sold to financial institutions.
- The Fallout: Widespread raids have resulted in dozens of arrests, including high-ranking public officials and financial advisors. Millions of dollars in fraudulent credits were traced to institutions like BAC International Bank (Panama), which maintains it acted as a “good faith” buyer. Due to the nature of a police investigation, the names of the specific taxpayers whose files were compromised are withheld from the public record.
At least eight taxpayers were affected by the network that manipulated the e-Tax 2.0 system of the General Directorate of Revenue (DGI) to appropriate tax credits. The internal audit estimates that, through this method, tax credits totaling $30.5 million were canceled, belonging to eight taxpayers: Thunderbird Resorts Inc., Inchape Inversiones España SA, Consalfa SAS, Leemart Property Ltd., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, The Shell Co. W. Limited, Enel Investment Holding BV, and Citibank Overseas Investment Corporation. Some of these companies were already dissolved or suspended when the network targeted them.
