Richard S. Lehman Fights For What Is Right

excerpt from Latin America Report, How Panama Cut Poor Kids Out Of A Florida Millionaire's Will, by Tim Padgett

What has happened to Lucom’s will since he died in 2006 is a bewildering if not byzantine tale of legal intrigue that stretches from Panama City to Palm Beach County. Critics at home and abroad call it a stark illustration of Panama’s, and to a large degree Latin America’s, indifference to gaping wealth inequality and brazen judicial corruption – two factors that weigh down the region’s development like millstones.

Boca Raton tax attorney Richard Lehman was an executor of Lucom's will, and he's a central character in this Grisham-esque drama. “No one who has grown up in the American system, who believes in the law, can possibly be prepared for the lawlessness of Panama,” he says.

But the case may now be taking another important turn. “It’s not dead,” Lehman argues, “by any stretch of the imagination.” Read full article 

Attorney Richard Lehman Sues Panama for Human Rights Abuses in $50 Million Food Aid Case

BOCA RATON, Fla. - Richard Lehman, a Florida attorney who was falsely charged with murder and over a dozen other crimes in Panama for his efforts to defend a $50 million food aid donation, recently filed a human rights lawsuit against the country with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (Organization of American States).

“Panama continues to foster an atmosphere of corruption in the legal system which has caused it to be in violation of several human rights treaties,” said Lehman, a tax attorney and executor of the estate of Wilson Lucom, an American expatriate who died in Panama in 2006. “Not only have my human rights been violated, but the largest private donation ever made in Panama’s history is now at risk of vanishing completely.”

Lehman has spent the last two and a half years – and over $2 million of his own money – defending Lucom’s legally sanctioned will in Panama, which gave a $50 million donation to prevent childhood malnutrition. Since 2006, this money has been blocked by an influential family (which produced two former presidents), and corrupt government actions.

As executor of the estate, Lehman has been the target of numerous illegal actions because he is the last remaining obstacle to the family’s claim on the entire Lucom fortune. These include:

• Falsely arrested without charges on Feb. 6th and held under armed guard for 15 hours in an airport police detention center. (This arrest ignored the Panama Supreme Court’s weeks-old ruling that cleared Lehman of all charges in the case.)
• Falsely charged with murder, extortion and 12 other crimes.
• Five illegal arrest warrants issued against him.
• Illegally listed on Interpol’s “Red Notice Alert” using expired legal documents issued from a private law firm.
• Blocked from re-entering Panama to defend the case for over a year and a half.

A new national charity (Fundacion de Apoyo a Los Ninos Pobres de Panama) has been established to distribute Lucom’s donation – if it is released by the courts. The money is badly needed in Panama. According to UNICEF, it's one of two Central American countries to experience a rise in childhood malnutrition. One in five children is affected, and hundreds die each year.

Learn more at www.lucomchildren.com