Panama Investigates Alleged $40 Million DGI Tax Fraud Under Operation Pandora

Prosecutors in Panama are investigating an alleged fraud of around $40 million linked to the country’s tax authority, the Dirección General de Ingresos (DGI), in a case they have called Operation Pandora. The investigation is being led by the Public Ministry through its prosecutor’s office specialising in organised crime.

According to the prosecution, the alleged scheme operated from inside the DGI’s E-Tax system. Investigators say large tax balances belonging to people and businesses that had already paid were removed from the system and reclassified as unapplied payments, so that the resulting credits could then be sold on to a lending entity. The estimated loss to the State is put at around $40 million.

As part of the operation, authorities carried out a series of simultaneous raids — the Public Ministry said 23 search warrants were executed across the provinces of Panamá, Panamá Oeste, Colón and Coclé — and seized computer equipment and documents. Reports indicated that more than a dozen people were detained, a number of them officials of the DGI, although the figures varied slightly between different accounts.

It is important to be clear that these are allegations at this stage. No wrongdoing has been proven, no court has reached a verdict, and everyone connected to the case is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The proper course is to report what the investigation has set out while the legal process runs its course.

The DGI is responsible for collecting national taxes, so any case involving it draws close public attention. Tax revenue funds public services, and both citizens and businesses expect the system that collects it to be managed properly, which is one reason an investigation of this scale is significant regardless of its eventual outcome.

Cases of this kind can take time, as authorities gather evidence and follow legal procedures before any findings are established. More information may emerge as the investigation continues.

Panama Now Online will continue to report on this developing story with care and accuracy, distinguishing clearly at each stage between what has been confirmed and what remains an allegation.