Panama Thwarted In Aleman Extradition Effort

by Leroy Baker, Tax-News.com, New York

29 May 2006

A Nicaraguan court has blocked an attempt by Panama to try the former President of Nicaragua, Arnoldo Aleman on money laundering charges, by granting him an injunction against extradition.

The ruling, issued by the Appeals Court of Managua last Wednesday, means that Aleman will likely not have to stand trial in Panama on charges that he stole money from the Nicaraguan Treasury and laundered it through a series of Panamanian companies and bank accounts.

Aleman, who led Nicaragua from 1997 until 2002, and several of his associates, were accused at a preliminary hearing by Panama's anti-corruption prosecutor, Mercedes de Leon, of using some 60 Panamanian companies to conceal the transfer of more than US$58 million from the Nicaraguan Treasury into Panamanian bank accounts.

Judge Adolfo Mejia wrote on May 15 that were also "sufficient indications of links" between Aleman, his wife, Maria Fernanda Flores de Aleman, her father, Jose Antonio Flores, and former Nicaraguan internal revenue chief Byron Jerez.

Jerez was also granted protection against extradition by the Nicaraguan appeals court, the President of which also happens to be a member of Aleman's Liberal Party.

Aleman also faces a civil trial in Miami over allegations he purchased US bank certificates with money stolen from Nicaragua's government, according to an Associated Press report.

Aleman has already faced corruption charges in his own country and in December 2002 he was sentenced to a twenty-year prison term for a string of crimes including money laundering and embezzlement. The sentence was, however, reduced to house arrest thanks to the influence of Liberal Party loyalists in parliament, and he is now theoretically on probation while he appeals the corruption convictions.

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