This is an excerpt from Tim Padgett, Latin America Report @WLRN
. . . What has happened to Lucom’s will since he died in 2006 is a
bewildering if not byzantine tale of legal intrigue that stretches from
Panama City to Palm Beach County. Critics at home and abroad call it a
stark illustration of Panama’s, and to a large degree Latin America’s,
indifference to gaping wealth inequality and brazen judicial corruption –
two factors that weigh down the region’s development like millstones.
Boca
Raton tax attorney Richard S. Lehman Esq., was an executor of Lucom's will, and
he's a central character in this Grisham-esque drama. “No one who has
grown up in the American system, who believes in the law, can possibly
be prepared for the lawlessness of Panama,” he says.
But the case may now be taking another important turn. “It’s not dead,” Lehman argues, “by any stretch of the imagination.”
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