PANAMA Law and Practice Contributed by: Inocencio Galindo, Omar Rodriguez, Maria Eugenia Brenes and Joy Paull Torres, Morgan & Morgan
• casinos, operators of games of chance and betting systems, and other entities that do business over the internet; • real estate promoters, agents and brokers; • companies dedicated to construction, general con - tractors and specialised contractors; • armoured transport companies; • pawnbrokers; • companies trading in precious metals or precious stones, including diamond exchanges; • the National Lottery of Beneficence (LNB); • mail services; • companies engaged in the purchase and sale of new and used vehicles; • lawyers and public accountants, when in the exercise of their professional activity they perform on behalf of a client any of the activities subject to In matters of AML/CFT, the above-mentioned entities must report a suspicious transaction regarding any transaction that cannot be justified or substantiated against the financial or transactional profile of the cli - ent, or any transaction that could be related to money laundering, terrorist financing or the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. 2.4 Use of Technology in Investigations Internal investigations conducted by individuals or companies are not considered evidence to establish or prove the facts under investigation in a criminal case. Any element provided to the prosecutor is con - sidered an element towards a possible conviction (but not evidence per se) and will help to clarify the facts. In turn, the existence of prevention manuals (and a history of application thereof) can be considered as a bona fide action, and may be part of the conditions for a suspension of the criminal process and for exploring an alternative method of conflict resolution. supervision; and • public notaries. Some types of internal investigations, such as audit reports, can be presented to the prosecutor as evi - dence. In a criminal investigation, private statements are not considered evidence. The defendants have the right to a cross-examination, and the use of lie detec - tors is not valid in the official investigation. Any report made to regulatory entities in the matter of preventing
money laundering, financing of terrorism or financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is not considered evidence in a proceeding, but rather as indications for the prosecutor in charge to carry out the necessary investigations to verify the commission of crimes. As far as the Public Prosecutor’s Office is concerned, a support tool is used in AI issues. This is very similar to a virtual operational assistant – the fact under investi - gation is entered and creates the so-called legally rel - evant fact, used in the accusations of charges. Before, this had to be done manually, and it allowed the crea - tion of the fact to be charged with a view to framing it in the theory of crime, requiring the prosecutors to be more studious – today, this method is questionable. 2.5 Internal Investigations Internal investigations are not mandatory, but they are needed to provide lines of investigation to the prosecutor – in fact, they are considered elements of conviction and even evidence in an eventual oral trial. Companies are not generally obliged to grant such investigations; however, if the prosecutor knows about them and requests information by law, they are obliged to grant them. 2.6 Prosecution White-collar prosecutions must be initiated by the prosecutor. The prosecutor has full legal authority to refrain from directing an investigation against a person or company involved in this type of crime, as long as the basis for that decision is that the company or individual will contribute to the process in order to uncover and sanction those with a higher degree of Panama’s criminal investigation process begins with a preliminary investigation, which can then lead to the formulation of charges. If the process continues, it will advance to a trial stage. Before this stage, it is possible to conclude the process through mediation, conciliation, withdrawal, suspension of the process subject to conditions, discretionary prosecution and plea agreements. participation, if applicable. 2.7 Deferred Prosecution
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