Tuesday, September 16, 2014

How Panama Cut Poor Kids Out Of A Florida Millionaire's Will

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.”

LISTEN TO AUDIO and read this full story here:
http://wlrn.org/post/how-panama-cut-poor-kids-out-florida-millionaires-will