Chiriquí Chatter

Today, on the RetirenPanama Yahoo group, Peter Gordon posted the following message:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RETIREnPANAMA/message/6043

La Estrella - the HSBC seizure of Panamanian Foundation’s assets story

The renowned and highly respected and regarded journalist Richard M Koster has written about the matter where HSBC sued me, Peter Gordon, for $5 million, for complaining about their services and fees on various Yahoo internet groups, , and then seizing my assets and the assets that I had donated to a charitable Panamanian Private Interest Foundation (”PIF”) before there was even a Court case to defend

Today, Friday July 11th, La Estrella is publishing Mr Koster’s story on the front page of the business section, and also in the English lift out supplement of that newspaper

or, please visit the website, click on the ‘printed version’ tab, then select ‘Finance”

http://www.worldlingo.com/S1790.5/translation?wl_srclang=es&wl_trglang=en&wl_url=http://www.estrelladepanama.com/

the english is computer generated, so it might be a strange read
eg. bottoms = shares
etc

to quickly remind members of this private members Yahoo email letter group what happened, in May 2006, HSBC sued on the basis they had suffered damages by my postings to the extent of $5 million ,whereas they only provided evidence of damage, by one client having closed his personal savings account, Kevin Bradley the insurance broker, for an amount of about $480.00

The alleged turn of events that led to me being sued by HSBC, was provided in Court documents by a letter that Kevin Bradley wrote to the then President of HSBC,demanding to close his account,immediately, and a letter from the then President back to Mr Bradley, acknowledging and regarding the closing of his personal savings account.

In fact if Mr. Kevin Bradley felt he was dissatisfied with the bank, as indicated in his letter,he could simply have gone to a teller at any branch, and withdrawn his $480 and closed his account, with out naming me in a letter stating that I was complaining about the bank, and stating that my complaints were his sole reason for closing his small savings account.

Of the 12,000 and more complaints on the world wide Internet about HSBC from clients and customers, the BIG question is why they went after me, and the obvious answer is they had access to confidential knowledge where assets were located and how much

In passing, the Foundation never posted once anywhere or anything about HSBC, and as an innocent victim in this lawsuit, its only “crime” is that it has assets in it, that HSBC knew about , and could so easily seize, even though the Law specifically says that they could not do this, except if such a crime occurred and it was narcotic related, or money laundering, or arms trafficking or a few other stated heinous crimes, which none of them were , or even given as reasons, just the damage to HSBC’s honour and good name

If you created a Foundation and donated assets to it, or own a Corporation , in Panama, you owe it to yourself to read this newspaper story, by the most credible of journalists, and realize the shaky legal status of these structures at present

Mr Koster has interviewed countless people, Kevin Bradley, Don Winner, Dr.Charlie Garcia , recognized large law firms and major offshore service providers, other Banks, Panama’s equivalent of the SEC, Superintendent of Banking , etc etc in preparation of this remarkable story

peter Gordon

peter g in Panama, where the “likes” outnumber the “dislikes” by a million to
one

In another post on the Panama Forum Yahoo group Peter added the following after purchasing todays paper. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/panamaforum/message/54953

further to the La Estrella - the HSBC seizure of Panamanian Foundation’s assets story

hi everyone

I just picked up a copy of the newspaper, and there is an English supplement included.

Crikey, it makes a difference reading it in English, and I assure everyone, the story is even more interesting.

There are facts disclosed that I even didn’t know

for example, Mr Don Winner was interviewed and reported that there were around the time I was obsessively posting my complaints, there were 593 other messages posted with complaints, and of
that total , only 33 were from me

The title of the story , The Ex-pat and the Bank, was chosen, although others were considered such as “The wackiest Lawsuit in History”

other highlights include

that there is a difference in culture between North Americans and here, to wit, what I believe was free speech on an American private members yahoo group, sounded to “tropical ears like libel and calumnia

I don’t have shares in La Estrella, but strongly recommend you get today’s paper

peter g in Panama, where the “likes” outnumber the “dislikes” by a million to
one

I purchased the current paper. I found it interesting that the Spanish version has a subtitle that (in my mind) translates to “The struggle between David and Goliath”. The English section has the article’s subtitle as “An Unhappy Relationship”. I personally like the Spanish version better.

The English section of the paper did not contain all of the Spanish section’s article. It ended as follows:

In April 2006, HSBC Bank Panama and its parent HSBC Bank USA embargoed Gordon’s and Geelong’s assetts and sued for $5 million. (To be continued…)

This case will be watched by both Panamanians and foreigners combined.