Harris switches to Argentine flag

by Eric Jackson

Embattled financier Marc Harris, a naturalized Panamanian of US origin, now flies the Argentine flag on his internet website (www.marc-harris.com/).

In a February 28 press release, Harris said that "we will maintain firm in our mission although this will entail the relocation of our investment advisory activities to a new location." The statement came in the wake of several adverse Panamanian court decisions and National Securities Commission (CNV) rulings, the arrests of several people who figured in his organization, unflattering mention in a report by Democratic staff members of the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and a series of stories in the La Prensa business section. Earlier the Supreme Court upheld the CNV's decision to close several of his companies as unlicensed securities brokers. Shortly after the Supreme Court decision, Harris issued a statement that his web of companies would be "pursuing international remedies that are devoid of political interference."

Now Marc Harris's Internet operation, which used to tout Panama as a financial paradise, features the Argentine flag and affects British rather than American English spellings. The site includes an updated professional biography of Marc Harris without a single mention of Panama. It describes The Harris Organisation's goals in Argentina as "developing investment contracts, like The Harris Organisation residence plan and The Firm of Marc Harris (Argentina) SA, Agente de Valores."

"The Harris Organisation provides a variety of Residency solutions to meet the needs of most people," the website says of residency plan. "Just about everybody can benefit by having a second passport, in order to escape political prejudice and travel restrictions." On the site's map of offices and "correspondents," The Harris Organisation claims a presence in Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Belize, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Argentina, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Monaco, South Africa, the Seychelles, Panama and England. The Argentine stock brokerage portion of the Harris operation can be found online as HOTrade (www.hotrade.com/ns/aspmain.asp). The site also provides a secure way to transfer money to the Harris group.

The Harris Organisation's shift to Argentina comes as there is increasing pressure within the Argentine government's ruling coalition to dismiss the central bank president Pedro Pou for an allegedly lax attitude about money laundering and other financial crimes.

Marc Harris's press releases

Marc M. Harris denounces judicial insecurity

and allegations of serious misconduct by US FBI agents

(EMAILWIRE.COM, February 13, 2001) Marc M. Harris, the founder and executive chairman of The Harris Organisation (THO), publicly denounced the "de facto" expropriation of his organisation's operations in the Republic of Panama without compensation. The Harris Organisation's operations in Panama continue to function normally; however, the company has implemented contingency plans to service its entire international clientele through its other offices in the absence of a swift resolution.

Mr. Harris expressed extreme concern after continuing delays in the Boutin case and what appears to be political intervention in the decisions of the judicial branch of the Panamanian government with respect to a matter involving the local National Securities Commission. The political intervention appears to be based on unsubstantiated press reports and leaked documents from the International Legal Attaché office of the US FBI since 1997.

Mr. Harris believes these events will have the net affect of expropriating:

• The Harris Organisation's assets in the Republic of Panama;

• The assets of clients of THO in the Republic of Panama and elsewhere;

• The right to earn a livelihood for more than 100 Panamanian workers at THO's Panamanian affiliates; as well as

• Deny THO from pursuing its criminal and civil cases against Dr. Gilberto Boutin et al. that has denied the company from accessing millions of dollars in assets since 1997.

In response to his loss of confidence in the concept of judicial security within Panama, Mr. Harris has announced that his company will pursue the following additional actions to protect the rights of its stakeholders including his Panamanian employees who also happen to be beneficial shareholders in the group's world-wide operations:

• The Harris Organisation will submit claims to its international insurance carriers under its political risk coverage to declare recent court decisions and the lack of other decisions as "de facto" acts of expropriation through the legal process, as well as request reimbursement of all losses suffered by its stakeholders.

• THO's legal department will begin preparing a report to be provided to members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives concerning the de facto expropriation of the organisation's assets as well as concerning the actions of various individuals associated with the US FBI's International Legal Attaché programme.

• Marc M. Harris has also requested that his personal attorneys prepare a formal complaint to be submitted to US Attorney General Ashcroft as well as the US Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility concerning what he believes to be actions of FBI Legal Attaché Gil Torres et al. that go far beyond the charter of the FBI and border on a modern day COINTELPRO.

• A report concerning the FBI's activity in Panama will also be submitted to various committees of the United States Congress to ensure that appropriate oversight is given to this matter.

• Mr. Harris has also expressed his willingness to travel to Washington, DC in appropriate circumstances to testify before the United States Congress concerning what he considers to be a 3-year plus campaign to discredit his organisation and his person by members of Panama's "kleptocracy" in collusion with "rogue" elements of the FBI.

• In light of alleged attempts by Gilberto Boutin and the FBI to create a defect in his Panamanian nationality in order to strip him of his only citizenship (cf. B. Ivcher case in Peru), Mr. Harris will request that certain international human rights groups monitor developments.

• The Harris Organisation has also instructed its attorneys in the Republic of Panama to prepare an updated report to all major embassies and consulates to supplement Marc M. Harris' letter of 12 October 1998 to express his concern about the integrity of Panama's judicial system with respect to the Boutin case.

• The legal staff of The Harris Organisation will also prepare a report for various non-governmental organisations including certain "fairness in media" groups and request that they conduct an independent review of the activities of various reporters at La Prensa Panama as well as other minor publications that were quoted in a recent minority US Senate staff report.

The Harris Organisation regrets that its loss of faith in the judicial system in Panama may cause unintended damage to third parties; however, this decision has been taken in order to recover the damages caused to its shareholders, clients, and employees by the irresponsible activities of a few.

Marc M. Harris also wishes his actions to serve as a warning to others that might be subjected to these types of actions. He also wishes to provide protection to the members of his family and his employees that are now being overtly threatened. Despite its loss of faith in Panama's judicial system, THO will continue to seek remedies through the Panamanian courts while at the same time, pursuing international remedies that are devoid of political interference.

The Harris Organisation is an international asset protection and financial planning company providing services from the Americas for its worldwide clientele.

The Harris Organisation expresses concern over unelected

Panamanian CNV officials and their private labour policy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 28, 2001

MARC M. HARRIS REAFFIRMS COMMITMENT TO HIS PANAMANIAN EMPLOYEES, EVEN IF UNELECTED BUREAUCRATS DO NOT.

Although our lawyers are awaiting formal notification, we understand that Panama's Comisión Nacional de Valores has denied an investment advisory license for Harris Investment Advisory, S.A. (Panama).

The basis of the decision was:

a. Our failure to provide information about The Harris Group's operations in other parts of the world.

b. The existence of several complaints received by the CNV as a result of their invitation to solicit complaints about our organisation.

c. Given the attacks in the press, our business is not conducive to the reputation of Panama's international financial centre.

We believe this ruling goes considerably beyond the extra-territorial applicability of Panama's new securities law.

Nonetheless, we will remain firm in our mission of protecting the privacy of our international clientele and the autonomy of our operations located in other jurisdictions, although this will entail the relocation of our investment advisory activities to a new location.

We understand that one complaint against us was instigated by Gilberto Boutin, who is currently facing criminal trial in one of the longest and most investigated cases in Panama's history for his attempt in 1997 to illegally appropriate, for his own personal use, all of THO's assets in the Republic of Panama. The case has generated enormous publicity and has raised serious questions with regard to the issues of "judicial insecurity" and "political intervention" in Panama's courts.

Another group of complaints was filed by an attorney and ex-advisor to the previous Administration of Panama that has been at the centre of a visa scandal with the USA. According to one US Congressional participant, this former advisor's testimony was so overblown that her own US Visa was revoked, along with several other former advisors of the ex-president of Panama, in a decision that also included revoking the former Panamanian President's US Visa.

Interestingly, we at THO have been denied the right to examine these complaints against us. This constitutes a serious breach of both Panamanian and International Law.

With this decision, the Panamanian Comisión Nacional de Valores (CNV) has in effect violated the universally recognized presumption of innocence until proven guilty principle, and the equally important legal principle, recognized by virtually every nation on Earth, that guarantees due process of law.

How can any organisation be expected to respond to complaints that they have not been allowed to see? And how can Panama's CNV partially base their decision for denying an advisory license on these complaints in blatant disregard of the legal principles aforementioned?

There is reason to suspect that commissioners and competitors may have ulterior motives for denying equal protection and opportunity under the new Securities Law in order to eliminate, what they perceive to be, serious competitors in the local marketplace.

This situation should be a warning to all "politically incorrect" investors that have been "prosecuted in the press" from attempting to participate in closed clubs that wish to blackball potential competition.

We hope that certain CNV members would be more forthcoming about their relationships to the Estrellamar, Providence, Banco Disa, Private Asset Management, Banaico, and other such scandals that have undermined public confidence in local financial institutions.

We sincerely hope they can clarify their personal participation in these affairs, before further damage is done to what is left of Panama's International Financial Centre.

In an official US government report prepared in December 2000 as part of the US President's International Crime Control Strategy, the concept of a modern day "kleptocracy" was introduced. The report addressed the problems of weak financial regulatory systems, lax enforcement measures, and high-level corruption as key factors. The report goes on to state that in some cases, state-sanctioned corruption may be so corrosive that the country itself has become a "kleptocracy." Rather than serve the public interest, bureaucrats in such countries use the resources of the state solely to enrich themselves and keep themselves and their cronies in power. Ruling their countries as virtually a personal business enterprise, kleptocratic bureaucrats exploit the most profitable areas of the national economy for personal gain, often resulting in losses for the state treasury and sometimes impoverishing the country.

Gross corruption aimed principally at enriching the political leadership leads to distorted economic decision-making that weakens a sound economy. Kleptocratic governments can also set the stage for social and political upheavals. The failure of institutions to fulfil the public responsibilities expected of them and any substantial breakdown of the rule of law may lead to significant economic deterioration and political unrest that threatens both internal and regional stability. In particular, in an increasingly global economy where any one country's economic growth and prosperity are to a significant degree dependent on international trade and commerce, more and more governments recognize that political corruption and judicial insecurity can undermine the credibility and competitiveness of their country's financial and commercial sectors, which is bad for business and the economy. We fear that many of the actions of the CNV combined with the inordinate delays in justice for our organisation in the Boutin affair are the result of "kleptocratic" interests within Panama.

We wish to add our regret that at a time when Panama is approaching a possible economic meltdown, a few UNELECTED public officials feel it is in their best interest to throw hard working Panamanians into the streets. Although those unelected bureaucrats may NOT care about our Panamanian employees, we do.

As a result, we will provide these employees with the opportunity to relocate to THO offices outside of Panama, so they may continue to work and support the over 100 families that depend on our contribution to the Panamanian economy. We sincerely doubt that it is the policy of elected officials of the Republic of Panama to allow unelected government appointees to pursue their own personal labour policy of further undermining private employment in the Republic of Panama.

THO's operations will comply with the CNV's decision; however, our organisation will continue to pursue the remedies outlined in our previous communication of 13 February 2001 to the international press, while simultaneously taking appropriate action through Panama's legal system.

THO's operations in the Republic of Panama continue to function normally; however, we will immediately move forward with the implementation of contingency plans to relocate those activities in our operation, subject to CNV regulation, to other countries that welcome our contribution to the local economy, as well as provide a greater deal of administrative and judicial transparency.

The Harris Organisation is an international asset protection and financial planning firm that has been operating internationally since 1985. THO maintains a paid up capital in excess of US$50 million and administers assets for its international clientele on a worldwide basis.

For additional information, you may contact The Harris Organisation at directors@marc-harris.com.