Panama is open for business — but money launderers need not apply.
That was the message of Juan Carlos Varela, president of Panama, speaking with the Post on Thursday night at a party he hosted at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York, where he sipped on gourmet Panamanian coffee and feasted on his country’s rich cuisine.
Varela said he has been improving the regulatory climate since he assumed office three years ago.
Panama took a beating with the leaking in 2016 of 11.5 million legal documents from the law firm Mossack Fonseca, detailing potential money fraud. Varela said it “wasn’t fair” to characterize the documents as the Panama Papers, a term popularized by the media.
The controversial documents were held by the Panamanian law firm and purportedly revealed personal financial information of wealthy persons and public officials globally.
Panama prides itself as a ‘banking center’. Have you ever tried to exchange/convert foreign currency in Panama? It’s almost impossible!
I’ve traveled to many South East Asia countries frequently, and can take Canadian or American currency, AmEx Travellers Cheques, etc. NO PROBLEM IN THAILAND or elsewhere. You can exchange currencies on almost every street corner. Does Thailand brag about being a country of financial status? NO. And yet Panama continues to do so. And yet… if you don’t have American currency… it’s hard to exist in Panama. How deep does Panama have to bury their heads in the sand… before they realize they are not a global financial center?