PANAMA Law and Practice Contributed by: Inocencio Galindo, Omar Rodriguez, Maria Eugenia Brenes and Joy Paull Torres, Morgan & Morgan
commitments. While Panama does not maintain an autonomous national sanctions regime, it enforces sanctions derived from international frameworks – particularly those issued by the United Nations and supported by extraterritorial standards such as US and EU sanctions, GAFILAT, and in co-ordination with countries such as the United States. These sanctions may include asset freezes, cancellation of registra - tions, and trade restrictions. Panama has cancelled hundreds of vessel registra - tions linked to sanctioned entities, including 136 ves - sels tied to the National Iranian Oil Company and 78 vessels involved in IUU fishing. The main offences include: • engaging in financial or commercial transactions with individuals or entities subject to international sanctions; • facilitating the movement of goods or funds in vio - lation of such sanctions; and • failing to conduct due diligence or implement com - pliance controls. Constituent elements of these offences typically involve: • knowledge of the sanctioned status of the counter - party; • intentional or negligent participation in prohibited transactions; and • omission of reporting obligations. In customs contexts, offences such as contraband and customs fraud – regulated under Law 30 of 1984 – are also relevant, particularly when they involve sanc - tioned goods or entities. Sanctions for breaches vary. Administrative penalties include fines ranging from PAB5,000 to PAB1 million, suspension or revocation of licences, and public rep - rimands. Criminal penalties may apply in cases involv - ing money laundering, terrorist financing, or fraudulent concealment of sanctioned transactions, with impris - onment ranging from five to ten years.
Enforcement authorities include the UAF, the DGI, the Superintendencia del Mercado de Valores (SMV) and the Autoridad Nacional de Aduanas . Liability arises when entities fail to implement adequate compliance programmes, ignore red flags, or obstruct regulatory oversight. 3.11 Concealment Article 254 of the Criminal Code addresses the offence of concealment. It penalises individuals who, either personally or through intermediaries, receive, deposit, negotiate, transfer or convert money, secu - rities, assets or other financial resources, knowing they originate from various serious crimes such as international bribery, human trafficking, drug-related offences, terrorism and more. The intent must be to hide, cover up or disguise the illicit origin of these resources or to help evade legal consequences. The punishment for this offence is imprisonment for five to 12 years. 3.12 Aiding and Abetting According to the degree of participation, people can be punished based on the help or collaboration they provide, and, depending on the level of collaboration, a corresponding sanction will be imposed. Determining sanctions without knowing the crime that the natural person has committed is highly subjective – they may even be responsible for instigation, and this leads to the same result as for the perpetrator of the crime. 3.13 Money Laundering Money laundering is attributed to anyone who per - sonally or through an intermediary receives, depos - its, negotiates, transfers or converts money, securities and other financial resources, and who should have reasonably foreseen that they came from illicit activi - ties. To establish the crime of money laundering, the fol - lowing must be proven: • illicit origin of funds – the money must originate from a predicate offence;
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