Volume 14, Number 18
September 23, 2008

news

Also in this section:
Major art theft scandal unfolds
Evo Morales visits the University of Panama
Bolivian crisis explodes, Latin America rallies behind Morales
Inter-American Human Rights Court condemns Panama for dictatorship-era murder
US "patriot" militia shill and offshore hustler's case against The Panama News dismissed
White House on drugs
Democrats Abroad campaigning here
Home-grown Darien kidnappers thwarted
Panama News Briefs

The animalistic defendant outside the courthouse. Note

the crook clothes he's wearing. Photo by José F. Ponce

The guy who "proved" that Bill Clinton, not Tim McVeigh, was behind the Oklahoma City bombing loses in court

Mark Boswell alias Rex Freeman's criminal defamation case dismissed

by Eric Jackson

Mark Boswell, the convicted felon who did time for fraud in Colorado, the fugitive from Costa Rican justice, the offshore investment scam artist who uses the alias "Rex Freeman" and the financial columnist for Don Winner's Panama Guide and Roger Gallo's EscapeArtist.com, got slapped down in court. He had brought a criminal defamation complaint against this reporter and on September 10 it finally got before Judge Ernesto Guillen for a pretrial hearing.

Assistant prosecutor Giovanni Marín noted that more than a year had passed since the defense had made a request for judicial assistance to get a number of US court and government documents from the Colorado and federal governments --- things like the documentation of Boswell's convictions for fraud and fake ID, about his "patriot" militia movement activities and about the use of the KHNC radio station where Boswell had a show to disseminate the Montana Freemen's anti-government rants during the 81-day armed standoff between that group and the FBI --- until the feds cut the militia's phone lines and thus their access to the far right radio station. Marín said that the documents were not in his possession or in the court file, but this reporter has learned through his attorneys that the American authorities sent a thick sheaf of papers in response to the request and the Panamanian authorities were slow in translating these. Because the defense had requested these exculpatory exhibits and they were not in the record, the assistant prosecutor urged the judge to provisionally dismiss the case, allowing it to be reopened if the record showed that this reporter misrepresented Boswell alias Freeman's legal troubles or patriot militia ties.

Boswell alias Freeman was not present for the case. He sent a ringer gringo couple to sit in the courtroom, and as no introductions were made it may have appeared to the judge that he was there. He was represented by two lawyers, attorney Alejandro Moncada Luna making the arguments on his behalf.

Moncada accused this writer of calling Boswell alias Freeman a "terrorist" in the article forming the basis of the case, which is not true, and then launched into a long argument about how, since the United States recently renewed his client's passport, he's obviously not a terrorist. He used this reporter's invocation (on lawyer's advice) against testifying at the indagatoria as "proof" that the article in question was libelous, and said that there was no evidence anywhere to back the claims in the story.

(At this point this reporter pulled out some memory sticks with extensive files on Boswell alias Freeman and waved them at Moncada, prompting Judge Guillen's admonition to maintain decorum.)

Moncada accused this reporter of having something to do with Boswell alias Freeman having legal troubles in Costa Rica --- not mentioning that those troubles include a warrant for his client's arrest and not explaining how it is that this reporter could or did manipulate the Costa Rican government to obtain the same.

For the defense, attorney José Yangüez simply argued that none of Moncada's assertions were contained in the file and that the case file did not show any proofs sufficient to order this reporter to stand trial.

After more than a week's delay, Guillen issued a ruling dismissing the case, without prejudice so that if Boswell alias Freeman can come up with any proofs he can reopen it.

Through his publisher Don Winner, Boswell alias Freeman vowed to appeal. Winner continued the attack of Boswell alias Freeman, whom he had featured as a foreign currency trading "expert" in his Panama Guide, as follows:

You might have noticed a recent flurry of activity in the dust-up between Rex Freeman and Eric Jackson. To make a long short, Rex decided to leave Costa Rica a few years ago after the Costa Rican government changed their tax structures. There were two former employees Freeman fired in Costa Rica, and those people set out on a vendetta against him. As part of that campaign they enlisted the help of a Costa Rican version of Eric Jackson who spent a considerable amount of time and effort "dogging" Freeman. This guy passed his notes to Jackson when Freeman moved to Panama. Rather than verifying any of the stuff, Jackson just took it all at face value and ran. Freeman then filed a complaint against Jackson which eventually went to trial and was dismissed by a judge last week. Freeman now says he will appeal that decision to the Superior Court. Because Eric Jackson owns his website he can write whatever he wants. I decided to give Freeman an outlet on Panama-Guide to tell his side of the story (for what it's worth), in order to balance the scales somewhat. Now, Eric Jackson calls me "Rex Freeman's publicist" and has (falsely) accused me of all kinds of criminal activity. In fact, Eric Jackson simply isn't healthy. He is a self-admitted unmedicated bipolar, and I don't think he can discern right from wrong or truth from fabrication much of the time. Not that it matters all that much, most of the time I simply consider the source and ignore Eric. And I'm certainly not going to spent any time, money, or effort to shut him up, but I did just want to put out a little reminder as to the actual facts regarding Eric Jackson and Rex Freeman.

Yep. Consider the source, but more importantly, consider the facts:

This reporter researched, wrote and published his article while Boswell alias Freeman was living in Costa Rica and had no contact with any Costa Rican journalist before doing so;
This reporter was alerted to Boswell alias Freeman's incursion into Panama by a source in the offshore financial services industry who believes that the presence of such people gives the honest operators an undeserved bad name. This source provided a dossier of documents that on their faces indicated that Boswell alias Freeman was operating a sales pyramid operation --- pay your $15 grand, then get a cut of the $15 grand of everyone else you can bring into the operation, the offer was --- that he had a notorious past with the far right militia movement in Colorado, that he was using the names of companies and institutions with which he had no relation to promote his "investment seminars," and that there were warnings online about him being a gambling cheat;
This reporter dug deeper and before publishing found two online newspaper articles mentioning Boswell's arrest for fraud and fake ID, and a Colorado Supreme Court decision denying certiorari on a criminal appeal by Boswell. (The Colorado rap sheet detailing the arrests, conviction and 18-month prison sentence, and Boswell alias Freeman's writings admitting this came into this reporter's possession much later.) Also used in the preparation of the story were articles from a newspaper and a human rights group's website about Boswell's patriot militia movement activities and the KHNC radio station from which he broadcast his show;
This reporter found online evidence of Boswell alias Freeman violating Panamanian banking and securities laws, and much confirmation of the nature of the man and the games he plays in his own published writings;
This reporter found many complaints among bulletin boards for offshore investors warning of Boswell alias Freeman;
This reporter contacted Boswell alias Freeman before writing the story and received a threat in reply, and included these communications in the story; and
After the story was published, many sources came "out of the woodwork," particularly from the USA and Costa Rica, providing additional stories and documents of Boswell alias Freeman's fraudulent schemes. It was than that communications began with Costa Rican journalists. It was well after that when a confluence complaints by employees who say that they were left unpaid, people who claimed that they had been cheated on investment scams and the Tico taxman's interest led to a raid on Boswell alias Freeman's office and the warrant for his arrest. This reporter had absolutely nothing to do with the man's legal troubles in Costa Rica.

(And yes, Don Winner is a criminal. He's a thief of copyrighted material and on top of piracy crimes his attempt to run a commercial website using such stolen property is but one of a number of counts of his violation of the Panamanian criminal laws against monopolistic practices. Also criminal was Winner's published solicitation of further criminal defamation complaints against this reporter.)

This reporter usually can figure out the difference between the truth and lies, and, although issues of right and wrong are sometimes complex, has a well grounded sense of ethics as well.

There may be an appeal by the accuser, and there will be an effort by the accused to collect costs and attorney's fees from Boswell alias Freeman. Stay tuned to see what happens to Boswell alias Freeman's publishers and continuing defenders.

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email: editor@thepanamanews.com or

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Cell phone: (507) 6-632-6343

Mailing address:
Eric Jackson
att'n The Panama News
Apartado 0831-00927 Estafeta Paitilla
Panamá, República de Panamá