DID PANAMANIAN LAWYER/FRAUDSTER LINKED TO CAYMAN GANG OF FOUR LAUNDER THEIR CRIMINAL PROCEEDS ?

                                                                 

Ismael Gerli

Ismael Gerli, A Panamanian attorney who has been identified as a participant in a number of money laundering and fraudulent schemes, has been linked to the Cayman Gang of Four* $450m trading scam, and may have escaped arrest due to being a Confidential Informant for a US law enforcement agency. He may have been one of the facilitators that covertly moved the victims' millions out of the Cayman islands, due to his known proficiency in conducting opaque transactions in Panama, Belize, and the British Virgin Islands.

We have previously reported on Gerli's role in a number of frauds; he gave false testimony in a case pending in Spain, solely for material gain, and in which he sought to extort money from a former client. He is also known to have been the attorney for the notorious American fraudster & sexual predator, Gary James Lundgren, and reportedly taught Lundgren how to illegally acquire bearer shares, and through them, substantial real estate holdings of Canadian and American investors residing in the Republic of Panama.

Joshua VanDyk

Gerli is linked to the convicted American securities trader, Joshua VanDyk, who you may recall worked at Ryan Bateman's Grand Cayman firms, Bateman & Company Ltd. and B & Capital Ltd. During that time VanDyk offered North American businessmen a scheme, through which VanDyk hid untaxed wealth in the Cayman Islands. Both Gerli & VanDyk were often operating in Belize at the same time, and a reliable source has confirmed their close association. Did Gerli adroitly hide, and launder, some of the missing investor dollars ? That would explain investigators' reports of lack of a paper trail of some of the funds.

                                                                 

Gary Lundgren, the Bill Cosby of Panama

VanDyk, though convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment in the United States, appears to have never been incarcerated, leading to the presumption that he subsequently rendered Substantial Assistance to a law enforcement agency. Did he recruit Gerli to be a Confidential Informant ?  Otherwise, there is no explanation for the fact that Gerli, notwithstanding his long history of conducting organized fraud, has never been charged in the United States. Gerli has not been seen in Public in Panama City of late, and he is rumored to be in hiding, fearing extradition to Spain.

Whether Gerli's proverbial Get-out-of-Jail-Free Card will now be terminated, with prejudice, remains to be seen, but we will be watching.
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* The Cayman Gang of Four are:
   Sharon Lexa Lamb
   Derek Buntain
   Fernando Mota Mendes
   Ryan Bateman