Sam Gander

After months of ignoring blatant illegalities, Panamanian regulators finally acted against The Harris Organization financial services group this month and suspended its business operations. However, an Order by La Comisión Nacional de Valores (National Securities Commission) was itself suspended by the Panamanian Supreme Court following an application by The Harris Organization.

The civil libel trial between Offshore Business News & Research, Inc., which publishes this newsletter, and The Harris Organization financial services group of Panama will start at the United States District Court for the District of Southern Florida (in Miami) on July 6. After two postponements by the court because of scheduling problems, a definite date has now been set for the trial, which is scheduled to last for about one week.

More information has come our way this month that sheds further light on the current and past turmoil of The Harris Organization of Panama, including details of liquidity problems, the conviction of another one of its clients on a drug trafficking charge and allegations of 'bounty hunting' against two of the group's officers. The financial services group, which we have previously reported as being insolvent, running a Ponzi scheme, ripping off clients and laundering the proceeds of crime, seems to be in financial trouble.

Former Cayman banker John Mathewson's sentencing hearing for helping to launder the proceeds of crime has been delayed yet again. Mathewson was due to be sentenced on April 30 by a court in New Jersey in the US but the matter was adjourned until later in the year; If figures compiled by The Wall Street Journal are to be relied upon for accuracy, the Cayman Islands is not the world's fifth largest financial center, as it claims, but is actually the eighth largest; Six months after US$9 million of its assets were frozen in British Columbia as part of an investigation into fraudulent trading, the Cayman-based broker/dealer Harris McLean Financial Group has filed a lawsuit in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands against one of its principals, Richard Harris, and his mother, Ana Harris; and Those of you who have been following our articles on The Harris Organization of Panama might like to read a three-page article on the subject that appeared in the June 1 edition of Business Week.