WILL HAMAS NOW PUT AN END TO PANAMA'S MOST NOTORIOUS FINANCIAL CRIMINAL ?

Okke Ornstein

On the run from the Panamanian criminal justice system, convicted career criminal Okke Ornstein has managed to avoid his scheduled prison term by artfully eluding the authorities, and popping up in other parts of the world, but this may soon come to an end. Why ? It seems that Okke has crossed a specially-designated global terrorist organization, and Hamas does not have a reputation for forgiveness. Even the most arrogant white-collar criminal knows better than to steal from terrorists.

As we have previously reported, Ornstein's involvement with a Palestinian refugee charity that was a Hamas front, ended badly. He reportedly embezzled more than$35,000 from donations, which he was soliciting on the Internet. Soon thereafter, he disappeared from the Netherlands, where he and a Palestinian fundraiser, Amin Abu Rashed, who has been linked to two other US- sanctioned charities, were working together, on a bogus charity that claimed to be supporting Palestinian refugees forced to flee Syria, but in truth and in fact was a Hamas front.

Amin Abu Rashed

Ornstein's problems are multiplying; his multiple fraud convictions in Panama, and prison sentences, have led to a referral to INTERPOL requesting that a Red Card be issued for his apprehension. He is believed to have left the Netherlands, where he originally fled from for Panama, dodging an investigation into his involvement in a child pornography business. Soon after arriving in Panama, he served as general manager for Ponzi schemer Marc Harris. He has been a thorn in the side of the Panamanian business community for far too long.

Will it all end badly for Panama's most prolific fraudster ? And what will it be, a long prison term, in a Central American jail, or terminated "with extreme prejudice ?" We cannot say, but this career criminal has given Panamanian and Americans far too much grief, to allow him to continue to operate.