With much being said about tax havens at the moment due to the release of the Panama Papers not much is being said about the role of US citizens in the building of these tax havens. One such tax haven is the Panama Pacificio special trade zone which is currently being built on the former Howard Air Force base in Panama.

The architect of the this special tax haven is US citizen John Buttarazzi who is the former Chief of Staff to Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle from New York. Buttazrazzi started his career as an economic policy adviser to the extreme Right-Wing Heritage Foundation before moving through several Republican Paery job and landing himself as the Senior Vice-President of the Empire State Development Corporation where his role was to help strip New York State of its public assets and sell them to Republican Party linked business men at a discounted price.

One of Buttarazzi’s company’s IMG Rebel was called to consult and to outsource the improvisation process for the former Howard Air Force in Panama after it was handed back to the Panamanian government. IMG Rebel managed to sell the property included the largest fully functional airport in Central America valued at approximately US$4bn for a grand sum of US$600m. The Panamaian Governemnt wanted to appear to be neutral on the sale of the property as was the terms of the agreement with the hand over from the US Air Force. The Panamaian Governemnt handed the sales process developmental application over to a neutral third party the at the World Bank’s INternational Finance Corporation who in exchange for severl million dollars in fees outsourced the process to Buttarazzi and his IMG Rebel comapny.

So with this development Buttarazzi has set up a tax haven which they call ‘economic incentive zones’ and continue to help run the developemntas part of their contract form the World Bank’s IFC. Buttarazzi is also the founder of Liberty Hall Advisers who makes millions in advisory fees each year advising government in the United States around the world about private, Public Partnerships. His company also advises private company’s how to set up shell company’s when dealing with government so as to socialise the costs of business and maximise the private profits from this business. As part of their contract with Panama Pacificoi which they have an ongoing role in the developments management they stand to make greater profit the more American company’s that set up base through shell company’s in this Panamanian Tax Haven. Thus he and his company’s benefit financially from the US company’s avoiding paying tax in the United States and unfairly shifting the burden onto working families.

The winning bid to purchase the former Howard Air Force base in Panama chosen by Buttarazzi and IMG rebel was the London Based Columbian Oligarch Jaime Gilinski and his Banco de Colombia whose minor shareholder with 15% ownership is US based Hungarian billionaire George Soros. Banco de Colombia has been named by the the United States Drug Enforcement Administration as being under the control of Colombian drug traffickers for money illicit money laundering via the Cayman Islands in conjunction with the Eagle National Bank of Miami in Florida. Banco de Colombia was once the government owned bank in Columbia but was sold by a corrupt government at a fraction of it’s value to the Gilinski family.

The Panama Pacificio development as it is called also doubles as a the largest Special Economic Zone where companies based in the area pay little or no tax and aren’t subject to normal laws of Panama. Part of the project is the redevelopment of the of the former US Airforce airstrip into an international airport and the running of custom checks at the airport by a special border police run Panama Pacificio company.

Not only have the Clinton’s through there Clinton Foundation invested millions in the Panama Pacificio not only direct investment but also through putting money into a Windpower project that will provide energy for the project. See our previous report, The Clinton foundation and Panama.

Not only have the Clinton’s invested in the development of this Panamanian Tax Haven they have encouraged other US companies such as Dell and 3M to set up office for the purpose of tax minimization which takes much needed revenue from the US government and increases the tax burden on ordinary US citizens.

Dr. Phil Williams of the Strategic Studies Institute at the United States Army War College in a Chapter in the 2002 book Transnational Organized Crime and International Security, p.76 published by USIP linked Lynne Reinner stated.

“The Colombian Gilinski family was using drug profits to buy resort property in the Crimea and Russia, and reportedly hired Armenian and Chechen hit men to remove members of Slavic crime groups opposing their activities.”

From the 1980s to the early 1990s these Colombian Drug Cartel death squads have murdered over 3000 left wing politicians to prevent the development of a progressive and democratic government. Colombia continues to be the world champion for murders of non-violent trades unionists and other activists. The country has around 4 million people internally displaced by the country’s long running civil war. Covering up for the Colombian government, North American and European governments, including former US President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have falsely accuse the FARC guerrilla movement of these murders and of narcotics dealing.

So you think any self-respecting left-wing politicians especially those hoping to become President of the United Stares would stear clear of these type of people, but not the our beloved Clinton’s and their Clinton Foundation who smelt an opportunity. In a Press Release entitled Clinton Recognises Panama Pacifico for Sustainable Development

For more on the Clinton Foundations link to the Panama Pacificio tax Haven see

The Clinton Foundation and the Redevelopment of the former Howard Air Force in Base Panama

The Clinton Foundation and the Panama Wind Farm