A criminal lawsuit has the Panamanian bank Banistmo, which belongs to Bancolombia, in serious difficulties. It caused so much impact that all the media in that country put the magnifying glass on the case.
In this case, filed as a criminal complaint by lawyer Esteban Ellis Bonilla to the prosecutor of the Primary Care Section of the Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office of the First Judicial Circuit of Panama, the owners of the Soho City Center in Panama accused Banistmo of committing financial crimes against them.
The owners of the shopping center, which they acquired in 2017 with an investment of USD 276 million, affirmed that the complaint against Banistmo S.A., exactly, is for the “crime against economic assets in the form of financial crime, crime of theft and misappropriation.”
It, according to Panama Hoy, is based on the fact that the owners of the property in 2022 presented before the courts of the Civil Circuit Courts of the First Judicial Circuit of Panama a bankruptcy reorganization process in order to restructure all their obligations to creditors and suppliers and by virtue of said process, the legal regulations in this matter in Panama, order protection measures in favor of the shareholders so that, The media notes that in the same complaint it was assured that when requesting an explanation of the millionaire retirement, Banistmo Investment explained that the move was made by instruction of Banistmo S.A., since according to them, the debt restructuring process had already ended. “It is clear and evident that the defendants today have acted in a malicious, premeditated and treacherous manner against our representatives,” lawyer Esteban Ellis Bonilla told La Estrella de Panamá.
The latter media says that those affected also maintained that the crimes reported were duly proven through the verification of the statements of the online banking Empresas de Banistmo (Bis-Para FID. No. 3144-Debt Service Account), which was managed by Banistmo Investment Corporation, but with funds generated by Inversiones Amilena, Inc. and Inmobiliaria Citelis Panamá, S.A. in the assets, furniture and real estate of their Soho Mall Project, which they acquired for the sum of USD276 million in 2017.
The fiduciary’s response
According to Panama Hoy, the response of the trustee that manages the PH Soho City Center trust, is that the collection of the USD 12 million was ordered by the agent of the creditors, which is Banistmo S.A and also explained to them, in his response note, that according to them, the process had ended, which is false.
In addition, those affected hope that the Panamanian authorities can endorse the so-called legal security of foreign investment in the face of this legal outburst where the banking entity ignoring the laws that inclusive has been called by its own name, that is, the Banistmo Law, presents great signs of illegality in banking matters and protection of foreign investments.