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Marc Harris abandons Panama, people who confided in him
by Eric Jackson
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by Eric Jackson
"Offshore asset protection" specialist Marc Harris has abandoned his Panama City offices and cut most of his phone lines. The one Panama City line that we were able to to find still functioning responded with a recorded message that "due to international events" and the possibility of "identity theft," people should contact The Harris Organisation and its network of companies only through a specified fax number or by email. Meanwhile, The Panama News has received a number of emails from investors who confided their savings with Harris and his offshore finance network and now are unable to get their money or answers about what happened to their money. Most of these emails asked for information and some asked for this journalist's help.
The rumor in the business community is that the US-born Harris fled to Nicaragua, where he has somehow managed to acquire the Nicaraguan citizenship that could prevent him from being extradited to face possible criminal charges in the United States.
(Harris has solicited business from Americans over the Internet by, among other things, claiming that he's a certified public accountant. Actually, the state of Florida took Harris's CPA license away for misconduct, and he never obtained a license in Panama. The sales tactic of representing himself over the Internet as a CPA when in fact he held no such license amounts to the US federal offense of wire fraud.)
In Panama Harris has enjoyed the protection of Attorney General José Antonio Sossa, who has blocked foreign law enforcement requests for help in investigations of Harris. Sossa is presently pursuing the prosecutions of several La Prensa journalists on criminal defamation charges for accurate investigative reports about Harris and his former financial empire.
Harris has also cultivated a strange international collection of political ties. He is a former aide to right-wing US Senator Jesse Helms, and used to prominently display a photograph of himself with former Senator Bob Dole in his office. Despite this, Harris purported to run a company by which he claimed that he could help Americans invest their money in Cuba. (Cuban authorities, who wouldn't respond to questions by The Panama News about this, never allowed Harris to go into business in their country.) Harris's private jet was used by former Peruvian spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos, now jailed on a plethora of corruption charges, to flee Panama en route to several months living on the lam. The same plane was also used by former Panamanian Immigration director Erick Singares when he defied a Supreme Court order and delivered a fugitive wanted in China and found in Panama to Chinese authorities in Havana. In Panama there was a minor scandal when Dallas Morning News reporter Tod Robberson noted that a Mrs. Wagman, the wife of Harris's sales chief at the time, a man wanted in the United States for a multi-milllion-dollar securities swindle, was in charge of the annual Easter egg hunt at the US ambassador's residence. (Shortly after the story broke, Mr. Wagman was arrested and sent back to the United States, where he was eventually sentenced to a prison term.)
The Panama News contacted Harris by email with a series of questions based on the rumors in Panama's business community and the weird recorded telephone message, and received a reply in which Harris claimed that he had written a 40-page document about his relationship to Panama for us, but that because we had not treated him fairly he decided not to send it. Harris went on to offer tips on interesting stories if The Panama News gave him some favorable coverage.
A June 30 report in OffshoreAlert, whose publisher David Marchant Harris unsuccessfully sued for libel, said that an eviction notice was taped to the door or Harris's old offices in the Edificio Balboa Plaza in Panama City, claiming that $47,832 in back rent was owed. The newsletter said that such activities as Harris is now conducting in Panama are being run out of an office in Panama City's Edificio Aquarius, under the auspices of the South African consulate. Harris's right-hand man Ken Darlington, who was deputized by Attorney General Sossa to make arrests, has somehow managed to be appointed as South Africa's consul in Panama. According to OffshoreAlert's sources, when Harris dropped out of sight in Panama a number of his employees were left unpaid.
Offshore Alert noted that "Rather than admit the obvious, i.e. that his group is massively insolvent and has run out of cash despite the wholesale theft of client funds, Marc Harris released a letter dated June 14, 2002 in which he claimed that he had moved his organization out of Panama for business reasons." The newsletter said that Harris can be reached at Pan American Trust Company, Colonia Los Robes, Contiguo al Restaurante Wok, Managua, Nicaragua, and that his telephone number in Nicaragua is (505) 277-1213. The Panama News has been able to communicate with Harris by email at directors@marc-harris.com .
Since our odd exchange of emails, Harris has begun to forward articles from various publications and his own ruminations via Internet discussion groups under the auspices of "Harris Executive Intelligence," which bear the email addresses mharris@sinfo.net or 310SubmitArticleofInterestForPublishing@marc-harris.com .
It thus appears that Harris does not intend to retire on the remains of his former business empire, but actually intends to rehabilitate his dubious reputation as some sort of a financial guru. Let the investor beware.
(People who entrusted their money to Marc Harris should be advised. Though this journalist was a lawyer in the state of Michigan for several years, I let my state bar membership lapse and have not attempted to go into the practice of law in Panama, nor do I intend to return to the practice of law. I will not go to the Registro Publico to see if the company or foundation that Marc Harris was supposed to set up for you exists. I will not conduct a special investigation on your behalf. I won't even do these things if you offer to pay me, and I certainly won't consider helping you for free. Hire your own lawyer, if you are willing to risk money spent on legal fees in an effort that may well turn out to be fruitless.)
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