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FINANCE-PANAMA: OCTOPUS LANDS IN THE NET AT LAST |
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A suspected conman who laundered millions of dollars in Panama was
arrested in Managua Tuesday. The arrest ends an investigation that
lasted years, and gives an insight into money laundering operations
in soft jurisdictions. " Marc Harris's arrest is significant for
many reasons," David Marchant,
publisher of the Miami-based financial bulletin
Offshore Alert publisher told
IPS. "He is one of the biggest financial crooks ever to operate
offshore, and his operations affected many, many people and involved
tens of millions of dollars."
But the arrest now "also shows crooks that no matter where you
operate, it is possible that a major country will arrest you and
bring you to justice," Marchant
said.
Harris was the founder and chief executive of The Harris
organisation (THO) financial services group, which operated e-banks,
insurance companies and a trust company. It also offered
stockbroking, in-house mutual funds and other money management
services without holding a single licence.
Offshore Alert published a
report in March 1998 that THO was insolvent, and was operating a 'Ponzi'
scheme - known also as a pyramid scheme. These are schemes where
illegal transactions are layered over to disguise the original
fraud.
The firm sued for libel before a federal court in Miami, and lost in
July 1999. An appeal against the judgment was turned down... |
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