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Wealthy American's will and its charitable bequest set aside, money goes to Arias family

Supreme Court voids will, takes $50 million from needy kids
by Eric Jackson

"It's a horrible decision," law professor and human rights activist Miguel Antonio Bernal opined. "It's a heavy decision that will affect Panama's reputation in the world."

On August 6 the Civil Bench of the Panamanian Supreme Court --- Torrijos appointees Oyden Ortega and Harley Mitchell, and Moscoso appointee Alberto Cigarruista --- voted unanimously to void the will of US citizen and Panama resident Wilson Lucom.

Lucom, who had died childless in 2006, left his third wife, Hilda Piza (Arias), a condo and a quarter-million-dollar annual pension, with the residue of his estate, estimated to value around $50 million, as a charitable donation to poor children in Panama. Specifically mentioned in the testament were upgrades to public schools in poor communities and support for school lunch programs. He appointed Florida lawyer Richard S. Lehman as the executor to carry this out.

Lucom was not born wealthy, but served in important posts in Franklin D. Roosevelt's and Harry S. Truman's administration, and married the wealthy heiress of the Willys Jeep fortune. After she died he inherited most of that fortune and expanded it mainly through Florida real estate dealings. Lucom made the political trek from New Dealer to hardcore conservative, and in 1969 along with economist Reed Irvine and others co-founded the right-wing media watch group Accuracy in Media. He married Hilda Arias, and thus into the publishing family behind El Panama America and La Critica,  in 1982.

The octogenarian widow, who in court appearances was not all that lucid, and the real parties in interest, her five children from her previous marriage to Gilberto Arias, challenged the will.

Gilberto Arias, the founder of the gory sensationalist tabloid La Critica, who served as minister of finance and once ran for vice president of Panama, was a son of the late President Harmodio Arias and nephew of the late President Arnulfo Arias. Harmodio and Arnulfo arose to prominence in the 1920s with the group Accion Communal, which used to dress up in Ku Klux Klan robes and campaiged to deport all Panamanians of Afro-Caribbean, Asian or Middle Eastern descent. Having briefly come to power in a coup that the US Embassy disapproved, Harmodio was later elected president. He appointed his brother Arnulfo as ambassador to Mussolini's Italy and later to Nazi Germany. Later, Arnulfo was elected president but on the eve of US entry into World War II the United States instigated a coup so as not to go to war with a Nazi sympathizer in charge of the Panamanian government. The political movement that the Arias brothers founded lives on in the Panameñista Party, which is a coalition partner in the Martinelli government.

To challenge the will the Ariases hire the notorious attorney Héctor Infante, whose most famous client is former President Ernesto Pérez Balladares. In short order Lehman was falsely accused of murdering Lucom and several other crimes, and was arrested in Panama. Once the charges were dropped, it was arranged for a notification of a bogus warrant for Lehman's arrest to be put into the INTERPOL system. The case, which has also been litigated up and down the Florida courts, drew international attention.

The ruling will probably drive some of the wealthier foreign retirees and bank depositors away from Panama, as it stands for the proposition that neither the law nor the unambiguous wills of individuals will stand in the way of the desires of Panama's predatory aristocratic families.