WAKED MONEY LAUNDERING ORGANIZATION WORKED WITH RICARDO MARTINELLI AND GARY LUNDGREN

The Wakeds

Not mentioned in the many stories published this week concerning the Waked Money Laundering Organization of Panama, are details about who the Wakeds did business with, as they moved, cleaned and invested dirty cash, both for their clients, and for themselves. These are individuals and entities not yet designated by OFAC, but who should be exposed, for the protection of Panama's legitimate businesses.

The pending criminal investigation should expand to include two prominent individuals who have a long history of involvement in money laundering, and who are known to have been closely linked to Waked: Former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, and Gary James Lundgren, the Alaskan native who runs a dodgy investment conglomerate in Panama City.

(1) Martinelli's "Super 99" supermarket chain, which cleaned millions of dollars in Colombian drug profits, including narco-cash turned over to David Murcia Guzmán for laundering, is suspected of being an outlet for bulk cash from Waked. This was before Martinelli was elected president.

Ricardo Martinelli

(2) Gary Lundgren accepted bulk cash from Waked, and regularly sold the organization Panama City real estate: office and residential condominiums. This has been confirmed, due to the fact that Lundgren later defrauded Waked out of one of the condo units, and the organization threatened his life, necessitating the two omnipresent bodyguards that we see hovering around Lundgren at all times.

Gary Lundgren

Add this to the fact that Martinelli and Lundgren had a direct relationship, and a picture of a widespread money laundering network emerges, which includes the Waked Organization. Both Martinelli and Lundgren repeatedly placed bulk cash into several of Panama's suspect banks, and the US investigation should be expanded to include them, and others who assisted in the illicit money movement.