PANAMA CITY, Panama, May 6 (UPI) -- A prominent Panamanian businessman was arrested and U.S. assets owned by some 70 Central American companies were frozen on allegations of helping drug traffickers launder money.
Nidal Waked and his father, Abdul Waked, are accused of leading a money-laundering operation that took drug profits through companies that included a luxury mall, a bank and the duty-free zone at Panama City's international airport. The family also runs Panama's oldest newspaper, Estrella de Panama.
The U.S. Treasury Department said Waked and his father used "trade-based money laundering schemes, such as false commercial invoicing, bulk cash smuggling, and other money laundering methods, to launder drug proceeds on behalf of multiple international drug traffickers and their organizations."
The Treasury Department said the assets of 68 companies linked to the family have been frozen and stopped from doing business with U.S.-based companies.
According to an indictment, Nidal Waked also obtained a low interest rate on a line of credit from a Miami bank.
"Waked misrepresented the nature of funds he was moving through an account in the Miami bank as being funds borrowed from a competing bank at a lower interest rate," the Justice Department said.
The arrests come as Panama is trying to shake off its image as a tax haven after the release of the Panama Papers, a cache of some 11.5 million documents that allegedly link officials and celebrities to offshore bank accounts and possible illegal activities.
