HomeNewsBriefNew Panama Law Small Stride Towards Shrugging Dirty Money Stigma
BRIEF

New Panama Law Small Stride Towards Shrugging Dirty Money Stigma

ELITES AND CRIME / 19 JUN 2018 BY MIMI YAGOUB EN

Panama is seeking to clean up its image as a financial crimes haven by passing new regulations but the process has been tarnished by its failure to address certain policy holes and criminal proceedings against a former president.

On June 11, Panama passed Executive Decree 122, which requires the country to automatically share tax-related financial information with 33, primarily European, nations. The measure follows international reporting standards laid out by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Common Reporting Standards (CRS) and approved in Panama in 2016.

According to La Estrella de Panamá, the measure covers certain private and public sources, and financial institutions.

InSight Crime Analysis

Panama has long been used for tax evasion and money laundering purposes by elites from around the world, as was revealed in the explosive 2016 Panama Papers scandal. While Panama has made strides in recent years to reverse this stigma with new transparency laws, it continues to avoid some of the core issues behind financial crimes.

The positive measures taken by Panama have largely been in response to international pressure by entities such as the OECD and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which placed the country on its international money laundering watch list between 2014 and 2016.

Despite such initiatives, Panama is still failing to address some of the most important policy holes exploited by criminals. Its regulation of anonymous companies, a boon for money launderers and tax evaders as they allow people to set up secret shell companies without revealing their identity, remains limited. Furthermore, lax laws regarding the registration of ships under the Panamanian flag has long facilitated tax and other crimes.

Also casting a shadow over Panama’s attempts to improve its image is the ongoing espionage case against former President Ricardo Martinelli. Sources claim that current President Juan Carlos Varela -- former vice president to Martinelli -- was in on the scheme.

The case serves as a reminder of the high-reaching corruption that continues to undermine the rule of law in Panama, and by consequence attempts at serious policy reform.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ELITES AND CRIME / 16 DEC 2021

Two sons of former Panama President Ricardo Martinelli have pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the United States related to…

ECUADOR / 7 OCT 2022

Any chance of peace between warring gangs in Ecuador appears to be defunct after another two massacres.

ELITES AND CRIME / 1 DEC 2021

Ground to a halt in Guatemala City’s unrelenting morning traffic, a small team of government investigators began to worry they…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…