Dear Senator Martinez:
I am writing you regarding a serious foreign relation matter regarding the Republic of Panama and the corruption of its legal system and regular and organized abuse of US Citizens and their Civil and human rights.
I am one of many Colorado businessmen (and a number of CO Corporations and LLC’s) who have been actively doing business in Panama for the past 3 years. During that time, I have witnessed first-hand the extend of the corruption of the Panama legal system, and the systematic robbing of US and Canadian investors (both professionals and retiree’s) by cabals of Panamanian attorney’s, prosecutors, law enforcement officials and other government officials - all the way to the Supreme Court.
The most public example of this is in the case of a US Citizen, Richard Lehman, a Florida attorney who has been for 2 1/2 years attempting to prevent one of the Panamanian oligarchy’s from stealing the large estate of Wilson Lucom, a past advisor to the US Secretary of State. The Panamanian government/authorities have relentlessly abused the civil and human rights of Mr. Lehman as he tried to protect the Lucom state, which has been valued at between $50M and $150M—the majority of which Mr. Lucom left in his Will for the poor children of Panama. . .READ this entire letter to local state senator
You can see the full litany of false charges, false arrests, assaults on the Civil and Human Rights of this US citizen in the documents filed with the Organization of American States, at:
http://www.lehmantaxlaw.com/RSL_/62667387_1.PDF
http://www.lehmantaxlaw.com/RSL_/62667382_1.PDF
Monday, April 6, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
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.
Learn more at www.lucomchildren.com
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Boca attorney in international showdown
BOCA RATON, FL -- Richard Lehman is a tax attorney in a small corner office overflowing with paperwork and right now he's preparing to sue the nation of Panama for violating his human rights.
"This is what can be done under a judicial system gone wild," says Lehman.
Lehman had a wealthy client, Wilson Lucom who lived in Panama and who had cut his wife's children out of his will.
Instead, Lucom had decided to donate 50-million dollars to the starving children of Panama.
When Lehman went there to execute the will however, the attorney was charged with the murder of Wilson Lucom.
"Can you imagine waking up and your lawyer calls and says 'Guess what they just accused you of murdering Mr. Lucom, who's 89-years old, in the hospital, who was hooked up to tubs and died."
Since 2006, Lehman has been falsely charged with dozens of crimes in Panama, from murder to extortion.
He's even been named by Interpol as one of their most wanted. All of this he says started because Lucom's family in Panama has produced two former presidents of the nation and they want that money.
He says they are creating false criminal charges in an effort to prevent the will from being executed.
Even though all of the charges had been dropped against him for lack of evidence in February Lehman was still arrested, and held at gunpoint for 14-hours.
"You were scared?" asks Holmes.
"S--t, yeah I was scared," says Lehman.
He was detained in a hotel for five days and was only able to get out through a border town and cross into Costa Rica.
All this because a powerful family thinks where there's a will there's a way, and an attorney and the starving children of Panama are paying the price.
"You can't stop somebody from being a fiduciary across borders by using criminal laws against them. What kind of world would you have?"
"This is what can be done under a judicial system gone wild," says Lehman.
Lehman had a wealthy client, Wilson Lucom who lived in Panama and who had cut his wife's children out of his will.
Instead, Lucom had decided to donate 50-million dollars to the starving children of Panama.
When Lehman went there to execute the will however, the attorney was charged with the murder of Wilson Lucom.
"Can you imagine waking up and your lawyer calls and says 'Guess what they just accused you of murdering Mr. Lucom, who's 89-years old, in the hospital, who was hooked up to tubs and died."
Since 2006, Lehman has been falsely charged with dozens of crimes in Panama, from murder to extortion.
He's even been named by Interpol as one of their most wanted. All of this he says started because Lucom's family in Panama has produced two former presidents of the nation and they want that money.
He says they are creating false criminal charges in an effort to prevent the will from being executed.
Even though all of the charges had been dropped against him for lack of evidence in February Lehman was still arrested, and held at gunpoint for 14-hours.
"You were scared?" asks Holmes.
"S--t, yeah I was scared," says Lehman.
He was detained in a hotel for five days and was only able to get out through a border town and cross into Costa Rica.
All this because a powerful family thinks where there's a will there's a way, and an attorney and the starving children of Panama are paying the price.
"You can't stop somebody from being a fiduciary across borders by using criminal laws against them. What kind of world would you have?"
# # #
http://www.wptv.com/news/local/story/Boca-attorney-in-international-showdown/ABu1Ga0ag0aj7DF3WZWcKQ.cspx
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Legal case clouding Panama/U.S. commerce
Half of Panama’s population of children under the age of five is in grave danger of death from malnutrition. The country’s staggering 40 percent poverty rate is one of the worst in Central America.
The late Wilson Lucom reportedly left $50 million to a trust intended to aid these starving children according to a secret will revealed upon his death in 2006. Lucom’s Panamanian wife Hilda and her children from a previous marriage are contesting the will and over two years of legal haggling between the two parties has not resulted in the resolution of the case.
So far lower courts have ruled twice in favor of Richard Lehman, executor of Lucom’s estate, but the Supreme Court of Panama has agreed to hear the case amid charges of illegal tactics and corruption on both sides. Accusations and allegations fly back and forth as a reputedly dysfunctional system of justice attempts to deal with a weighty matter with far-reaching implications.
Read full article here.
The late Wilson Lucom reportedly left $50 million to a trust intended to aid these starving children according to a secret will revealed upon his death in 2006. Lucom’s Panamanian wife Hilda and her children from a previous marriage are contesting the will and over two years of legal haggling between the two parties has not resulted in the resolution of the case.
So far lower courts have ruled twice in favor of Richard Lehman, executor of Lucom’s estate, but the Supreme Court of Panama has agreed to hear the case amid charges of illegal tactics and corruption on both sides. Accusations and allegations fly back and forth as a reputedly dysfunctional system of justice attempts to deal with a weighty matter with far-reaching implications.
Read full article here.
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