OPEN reuest to MONICA PALM-    Please follow the RABBIT HOLE down and ASK— “Why has the Republic of Panama ALLOWED this group to do business WITHOUT A UTILITY CONCESSION for 20 Years?????  ”  You have just scraped the surface of these scumbags.  

___________________________________________________________________________________________

The legal proceedings that the main leaders of theSingle Union of Construction and Related Workers (Suntracs)facing prosecution or in open flight bear no relation to the street protests of the last month, which are the hallmark of this group. Paradoxically, its origin lies in a lawsuit initiated by its own ranks.

A complaint filed in 2022 by former workers at Red Frog Beach Club , on Bastimentos Island, Bocas del Toro, is what has led the union to this sort of union implosion.

These workers, now plaintiffs, were compensated by Pillar Construction, SA and Ocean Group International Inc. (which until August 2009 was called Pillar Panama, SA), developers of the failed tourism and residential project in Bastimentos. Instead of cash, the companies provided a villa at the PH Red Frog Beach Club and 13 plots of land.

The properties were placed in the name of Suntracs.

When the workers began demanding their share of the settlement, Suntracs put the real estate portfolio out of reach: it gave the properties in Bastimentos as collateral for a $3.1 million “loan” the union signed on June 6, 2022, with the Suntracs Multiple Services Cooperative, RL . Suntracs rhetoric would have called this a “me-with-me contract.” The cooperative no longer exists: it was audited and recently closed by the Panamanian Autonomous Cooperative Institute (IPACOOP) for alleged violations of Law 23 of 2015, on the prevention of money laundering.

Once upon a time…

At the turn of the century, the developers of Red Frog promised to invest $19.9 million in the first phase of the Bastimentos Island project, which would include 47 villas or townhouses and complementary services, such as two restaurants, three pools, a spa, a gym, two artificial lakes, and shopping malls. Questions soon arose regarding environmental damage. In fact, the National Environmental Authority (ANAM) issued a $130,000 fine. The Category IIIenvironmental impact study (EIS) that supported the project was later declared illegal by the Supreme Court.

The environmental mess was compounded by a labor one.

Reports from that time indicate that there were between 700 and 1,000 construction workers on the project.

The claims began with payments for Sunday work and overtime.

Two strikes were declared, which were deemed legal by the Ministry of Labor. The first took place from August 3 to 25, 2006; the second lasted more than a year and a half: from February 5, 2007, to October 14, 2008.

Due to the 2006 strike, the company was forced to pay $165,500 in back wages, plus costs, in a claim that reached the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice. The exact amount resulting from the 2007-2008 strike has not been disclosed, but an out-of-court settlement determined that the corresponding payment would be settled with the return of real estate.

And it is here that the events that are affecting the Suntracs leadership today apparently arise.

While representing the workers in the bargaining phase, Suntracs maneuvered to have the union itself, rather than the workers, become the registered owner of the properties handed over by the developer to settle the debt.

Méndez, the ‘acquirer’

The first agreement to transfer the properties was signed on November 19, 2012, by attorney Carmen Vicente Serrano, representing Ocean Group International Inc., andSaúl Méndez, general secretary and legal representative of Suntracs, who was identified in the transaction as the “buyer.”

There were two further transfer agreements eight years later, in 2020 : one on March 31 of that year with Golden Beach Trading Corp. (represented by Wilhelmina Bussing), and another with Dream Properties Inc. (chaired by David Naimark), on June 9. Saúl Méndez also signed both agreements.

The 13 lots (of varying sizes, although none exceeded 3,000 square meters) were transferred for the same value: $500 each. The 404-square-meter villa, located at PH Red Frog Beach Club, was awarded a transfer value of $117,951, although the Public Registry records the value of the built improvements at $192,707.

The transfer of the entire real estate package was made “free of mortgage and antichretic liens.”

In 2022, Red Frog workers filed a lawsuit seeking the benefits of the out-of-court settlement , accusing Suntracs management of aggravated fraud, money laundering, criminal conspiracy, document forgery, and malfeasance.

A note from attorney Manuel Antonio Olmos Castillo was filed with the Public Registry . On May 30, 2022, he requested that a marginal warning be added to the registration of properties awarded to Suntracs, to prevent “bad faith” or “reckless” transactions. The electronic records show that Olmos’s request was filed at 4:59 pm that day.

Attorney Olmos’s request was rejected due to an error in its presentation.

By coincidence or otherwise, on the same day Olmos requested the marginal warning notes, but at 8:30 am, the Suntracs board of directors allegedly held a meeting to authorize Méndez to sign the loan contract with his own cooperative for $3.1 million, payable over a term of up to 25 years. The minutes of the meeting were reportedly signed by Méndez and Alexis Pineda , the union’s secretary of minutes, correspondence, statistics, and census. This is evident from the minutes endorsed by attorney Alejandra Chong Torok. Chong is one of the substitute attorneys in the lawsuit Suntracs filed against the Savings Bank in 2024, for the alleged poor provision of services when their bank accounts were closed in 2023, amid protests against the mining exploitation contract in Donoso.

It is not specified what the cooperative was loaned for or how the $3.1 million would be used.

A week later, on June 6, 2022, the loan contract signed by Méndez and Luis González Marín , the cooperative’s legal representative, was registered with a notary.

To secure payment of the $3.1 million, plus interest (agreed at a rate of 6% per month), a mortgage and antichresis were established in favor of the cooperative on the Suntracs properties and villa at Red Frog Beach Club.

The loan agreement—according to the public debt—includes a clause stating that “the cooperative may declare the entire obligation due if the debtor’s assets are seized or otherwise pursued by third parties.” This means that these properties could avoid the legal consequences of Suntracs’ own actions.

Wanted

Following the complaint filed by the former employees, the Second Prosecutor’s Office against Organized Crime launched a criminal investigation (which no one was aware of until now), and this week, amid riots and protests against the law reforming the Social Security Fund (CSS) and the memorandum of understanding with the United States, arrest warrants were issued against 11 Suntracs leaders.

Genaro Lópezand Jaime Caballero , former secretary general and secretary of international relations, respectively, of Suntracs, have already been arrested.

Méndez, as he is known, is in the Bolivian embassy in Panama, where he has requested asylum, citing political persecution.