Mireya calls for Harris probe

In the wake of bribery allegations by Dutch freelance journalist and former Marc Harris associate Okke Ornstein that were published in El Siglo, President Moscoso has said that she’ll appoint a commission to invetigate whether the “offshore asset protection guru,” now in a Miami jail awaiting trial on money laundering charges, was protected by people in the Panamanian government. The commission’s membership and specific tasks have yet to be disclosed. However, it appears from the president's statement that only Ornstein’s allegations will be addressed, although revelations coming out of Nicaragua in the wake of the seizure of Harris’s archives and facts that have been notorious in this country for a long time are likely better leads to any serious investigation of the years of protection by Panamanian authorities that Harris enjoyed.

Ornstein’s allegations are that Supreme Court magistrate Winston Spadafora, National Police Chief Carlos Barés and Arnulfista insider George Weeden met with Harris and were on Harris’s payroll. When examined closely, Ornstein’s allegations about these matters trace back to what he claims that Marc Harris himself told him. However, Ornstein’s wife used to sign the checks for The Harris Organisation, so there is a possibility that he may be able to produce some sort of corroboration for his charges.

Ornstein also claims that he personally witnessed a meeting between Barés and Harris in a Managua hotel. There would have been other witnesses to this encounter.

Nicaragua’s daily newspapers, citing prosecution sources in their country, have reported that documents from Panama’s anti-money laudering Financial Analysis Unit, the Moscoso administration’s National Security Council and the Public Ministry, which is headed by Attorney General José Antonio Sossa, were also found in the Harris archives.

Moreover, it is a matter of public record that Sossa deputized foreign bounty hunters hired by Harris to make arrests in Panama and that he quashed US and German requests for money laundering investigations of Harris. It is also known that despite multiple criminal complaints by clients who claim that Harris stole their money, Sossa took no action on the cases and this inaction allowed the US-born hustler to flee to Nicaragua without the legal impediment against leaving the country that is usually imposed on those accused of crimes here. When taunted about this record by former La Prensa publisher and anti-corruption activist I. Roberto Eisenmann, Jr., Sossa’s response was to call Eisenmann a coward and refuse to discuss matters related to Harris.

There has been no response from the Financial Analysis Unit about allegations that Harris obtained information from that institution. National Security Director Ramiro Jarvis denies that his institution even has files and thus discounts Nicaraguan allegations that they were in Harris’s possession.

It appears from several sources that Marc Harris was among other things a computer hacker. It thus could be that he obtained sensitive Panamanian government documents without getting them directly from people working in public institutions. However, there have been no public statements of concern from any of the institutions whose documents allegedly made their way into Harris’s possession about their security against computer hacking.

Barés generally denies that he had anything to do with Marc Harris, although his public statements do not address the specific allegations of the meeting with Harris in Managua or the receipt of money from Harris.

Spadafora and Weeden have made no public comment about the allegations.

According to Ornstein, Harris’s style was not to make payoffs directly to politicians, but to funnel money to them indirectly through relatives, associates, companies or foundations. If this is true then officials bribed by Harris could truthfully but deceptively claim that they didn’t take money from Harris.

In Nicaragua, a lid may be clamping down on further revelations from the Harris archives.

The prospects for information coming to light via the Americans appear dim. Nicaraguan Prosecutor General Julio Centeno Gómez says that the files belong to his country and will be used for its national law enforcement purposes. A US offer for a portion of funds recovered from American tax and money laundering investigations based on the files has been reportedly rejected by the Managua government. Nicaragua has left open the possibility of turning over documents on a case-by-case basis, so long as the requests for information conform with Nicaraguan laws.

Meanwhile, Centeno Gómez told the Managua daily Nuevo Diario that the investigation is at a standstill because some 90 percent of the documents seized are in English and Nicaragua lacks sufficient English-speaking detectives and the Public Ministry budget has no funds to hire such persons. “Everything is paralyzed at this moment,” he told the daily.

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Mireya calls for Harris investigation

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Mireya calls for Harris probe