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Legislature quashes action on court scandals
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McMurrain trial postponed as his gang steals a new name
Panama News Briefs

McMurrain's trial delayed, troubles multiplying...

San Cristobal appropriates a new name --- someone else's

by Eric Jackson

Erstwhile Bocas teak and noni promoter Tom McMurrain has had his March trial before a federal district court in Atlanta  postponed until May --- these being some 163 allegations related to a chain of loan shark operations that McMurrain ran years ago. At the same time McMurrain is facing various investigations about other pre-Panama adventures that might have him facing other US charges as well. He will never again figure on the Panamanian business scene. The name of his company, San Cristobal Land Development, has long since been mud.

Ah, but the name of the Tropic Star Lodge is golden. This is The Original Panamanian Ecoutourism Success, the opportunity to catch (and release, these days) a fish that's bigger than you are, the famous fishing resort on Piñas Bay in the Darien.

Some of McMurrain's associates --- most notable among them former San Cristobal salesman Peter Ernst and former San Cristobal lawyer Barry Miller --- have gained control of some of the assets that McMurrain left behind when extradited to the states and they're now doing real estate business under the name "Tropic Star Properties SA."

The Tropic Star Lodge is not happy about the remnants of the McMurrain gang assuming similar name. The renowned fishing lodge has nothing whatsoever to do with the Bocas real estate operation.

The conversion of assets left behind from a fraudulent promotion like San Cristobal into the basis of a real estate business with more legitimate practices might be viable, and one factor that would aid in any such shift would be that the interests of legitimate buyers from the former operation are likely to be legally protected.

That is, protected to the extent that legal protection is available, as in when the seller's title was at least as good at what was promised to be conveyed.

It seems that several of the assets that McMurrain/San Cristobal offered for sale were being bought on land contracts or otherwise have or had deadlines with balloon payments attached, deadlines that have been missed or may yet be missed. As luck would have it, there were few investors in these San Cristobal projects, which include the Hotel Buccaneer Resort, the Palmira development on Colon's Costa Abajo and some of the mainland Bocas del Toro lands.

Meanwhile people who bought teak and noni plantations in the Bocas islands from San Cristobal may not become wealthy from their commodity investment as was suggested, but those who have persisted --- generally through their own lawyers --- are tending to end up with possessory rights to some valuable real estate.

(Speculation has been heavy in Bocas land, and legislation now being discussed in the National Assembly will provide for ways to upgrade certain possessory rights in real estate on the Bocas islands to full title. The particulars are subject to legislative negotiation and even if the law should be enacted it's likely to face a constitutional challenge, so don't hold your breath waiting for a final outcome. It seems that the PRD majority's primary intention is to reassure foreign retirees and thus continue the Bocas real estate boom, and that questions about whether shady operators will benefit and if so which ones --- whether sincerely posed or not --- may come up in the debates.)

The bottom line? The Bocas Boom is likely to continue. The Dignity Battalions are not coming to take the Gringos' land away. And if someone saying that he or she is from Tropic Star offers to sell you a money tree, know that there's no connection with the legendary folks you visit when in search of that big marlin.

Also in this section:
Legislature quashes action on court scandals
The perks of being Rector Magnífico
McMurrain trial postponed as his gang steals a new name
Panama News Briefs