CONNECTIONS TO MASTER PONZI SCHEMER PERVADE PANAMANIAN CORRUPTION INVESTIGATION

Ignacio Fábrega

The criminal investigation into Panama's former Superintendent of Securities, Ignacio Fábrega, who left government office, only to immediately accept employment at the brokerage house, Financial Pacific (FP), which he had been investigating for insider trading, has revealed a connection to David Helmut Murcia Guzmán, the Colombian Ponzi schemer, who stole billions from his victims.

Fábrega, prior to his government service, worked at Banco Universal, where he allegedly was involved in laundering Murcia's criminal profits. It has been established that much of the seed money employed by former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, and his close associates, to purchase Petaquilla Mines Ltd. stock, using inside information, which was later sold at an obscene profit, was stolen from Murcia's billion dollar cash stash.

Did Fábrega pass along to Martinelli's co-conspirators some of the laundered Murcia money ? Did he divert some of this money to his own use, and does that explain his cash purchases of luxury real estate in Panama ? Anti-corruption investigators in Panama City are pursuing muliple leads in the FP case, and  the extent of Fábrega's relationship to Murcia will certainly be exposed.