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	[[File:Shell-company accounts in the Guberek network.~~webp~~\|thumb\|upright=1.25\|alt=~~Editorial illustration~~: ~~Shell~~-company accounts in the Guberek ~~network\|Original editorial illustration of~~ company ~~folders and corporate records~~, ~~not a depiction of actual accounts or any specific transfer~~.]]		[[File:Shell-company accounts in the Guberek network.jpg\|thumb\|upright=1.25\|alt=stitched together with hugin, 55mm lense. Panama City (Spanish: Ciudad de Panamá) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has a population of 813,097, with a total metro population of 1,206,792, and it is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, at 8°58′N 79°32′W / 8.967°N 79.533°W / 8.967; -79.533. Panama City is the political and administrative center of the country. With an average GDP per capita of $38,900, Panama has been for 8 years in the top 5 places for retirement in the world according to International Living Magazine. Panama City has a dense skyline of mostly highrise apartment buildings and condos, but office complexes and hotels as well. Panama City is also an important hub for international banking and commerce.\|Jurisdiction of shell-company accounts described in the Guberek article; no pictured building is alleged to be a shell company. Photo: Brian Gratwicke ([https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Panama_city_(cropped).jpg Wikimedia Commons]), [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 CC BY 2.0].]]

	Shell-company accounts appear in U.S. Treasury’s 2013 account of the [[Guberek money-laundering network]]. Treasury said [[Isaac Perez Guberek Ravinovicz]] and [[Henry Guberek Grimberg]] used accounts of ostensibly legitimate Colombian textile companies and shell companies in Panama to move narcotics proceeds for trafficking clients back to Colombia. [[Ayman Joumaa]] was among the network’s named clients. This documents a mechanism in a designated network; it does not show that every company incorporated in Panama or every textile business was involved.<ref name="r1" />		Shell-company accounts appear in U.S. Treasury’s 2013 account of the [[Guberek money-laundering network]]. Treasury said [[Isaac Perez Guberek Ravinovicz]] and [[Henry Guberek Grimberg]] used accounts of ostensibly legitimate Colombian textile companies and shell companies in Panama to move narcotics proceeds for trafficking clients back to Colombia. [[Ayman Joumaa]] was among the network’s named clients. This documents a mechanism in a designated network; it does not show that every company incorporated in Panama or every textile business was involved.<ref name="r1" />

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	''Legal and sanctions status as of 7 October 2026.''		''Legal and sanctions status as of 7 October 2026.''

			{{TerrorWiki navigation}}

	[[Category:Money-laundering methods]]		[[Category:Money-laundering methods]]
	[[Category:Guberek network]]		[[Category:Guberek network]]

Editor: New article: Shell-company accounts in the Guberek network

2026-10-21T14:48:35Z

New article: Shell-company accounts in the Guberek network

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[[File:Shell-company accounts in the Guberek network.webp|thumb|upright=1.25|alt=Editorial illustration: Shell-company accounts in the Guberek network|Original editorial illustration of company folders and corporate records, not a depiction of actual accounts or any specific transfer.]]

Shell-company accounts appear in U.S. Treasury’s 2013 account of the [[Guberek money-laundering network]]. Treasury said [[Isaac Perez Guberek Ravinovicz]] and [[Henry Guberek Grimberg]] used accounts of ostensibly legitimate Colombian textile companies and shell companies in Panama to move narcotics proceeds for trafficking clients back to Colombia. [[Ayman Joumaa]] was among the network’s named clients. This documents a mechanism in a designated network; it does not show that every company incorporated in Panama or every textile business was involved.<ref name="r1" />

== The named network ==

In July 2013 Treasury designated the two Guberek principals and 29 other people and entities under the [[Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act|Kingpin Act]]. It stated that the network laundered drug proceeds for multiple organizations, including those of Joumaa and Jose Evaristo Linares Castillo. Treasury specifically described accounts held by textile companies in Colombia and a series of shell companies in Panama. Its announcement did not publish every company’s bank statement or make each account equally central to every client.<ref name="r1" />

== Names in the designation record ==

The 9 July 2013 OFAC list included Panama-based Bracro S.A., Chaps Investment Inc., Compania Real de Panama S.A., Constructora Nacional de Panama S.A., I&S Holding Company, Impan-Col, Inversora Panacol and Orbital Horizons. Colombian entries included C.I. del Istmo S.A.S., Colombo Peruana de Tejidos S.A., G&G Internacional S.A.S. and Induitex Ltda. These names make the corporate footprint more concrete. The list itself does not say which specific company held each alleged laundering account, or classify every listed Panamanian company as a shell.<ref name="r2" /><ref name="r1" />

OFAC listed C.I. del Istmo and G&G Internacional at the same Bogotá office address, while Induitex was listed in a Cúcuta free-trade zone. Common addresses and commercial locations can help identify relationships, but do not establish that two companies used one bank account or handled identical payments. Treasury’s description of the network and OFAC’s identifying entries provide different levels of detail; a company address is not a substitute for its transaction records.<ref name="r2" />

== Accounts and value movement ==

According to Treasury, the accounts enabled proceeds originating across multiple jurisdictions to reach Colombia. It listed accounts in Europe, Asia and the Americas as transit points. The role of a shell-company account in this case is to provide another legal name and account in the flow. A shell company can exist lawfully; the laundering allegation depends on the described use of these particular accounts and their link to drug proceeds.<ref name="r1" />

== Transit jurisdictions ==

Treasury listed Spain, Hong Kong, the United States, Mexico, China, Israel, the Cayman Islands and Venezuela among places where drug money transited additional accounts before returning toward Colombia. That geographic list describes accounts used by the [[Guberek money-laundering network|Guberek network]], rather than eight proven legs of a single shipment or a claim against all account holders in those countries. The release names Joumaa and Linares Castillo as separate trafficking clients, but does not identify which particular shell-company transfer belonged to either client.<ref name="r1" />

== Why legal names and ownership matter ==

GAO’s April 2020 study describes how shell-company accounts can obscure the source of funds and the natural persons who ultimately own or control a business or transaction. It also discusses schemes using invoices for consulting or other services, and indicators such as payments by unrelated third parties. These are general mechanisms and indicators. They do not establish that the Guberek companies issued fictitious consulting invoices, or that an ordinary third-party commercial payment was criminal.<ref name="r5" />

== Later changes and separate proceedings ==

The original designation list changed over time. On 29 September 2016, OFAC removed Constructora Nacional de Panama S.A., Guberek Grimberg e Hijos y Cia. S. en C., Avanti Joyeros E.U. and Felipe Guberek Grimberg. The notice records those removals without explaining the individual cases. It does not remove every company or person in the July 2013 network, nor decide the origin of every transfer previously attributed to it.<ref name="r3" />

DEA’s July 2013 criminal announcement named [[Isaac Perez Guberek Ravinovicz]], [[Henry Guberek Grimberg]], Johanna Patricia Ceballos-Bueno and Dilleman Hernando Solorzano-Lozano in a one-count money-laundering-conspiracy indictment. The accusation concerned controlled-substance proceeds. This was a separate proceeding from the larger company designation action and does not supply a criminal verdict against each company in the sanctions list.<ref name="r4" />

== Joumaa and Hezbollah relationship ==

Treasury named Joumaa as a client of the [[Guberek money-laundering network|Guberek network]] and separately described his global narcotics enterprises as benefiting groups such as [[Hezbollah]]. The Guberek account mechanism therefore connects to Joumaa through a named laundering-client relationship. The release does not identify a particular Panama shell-company transfer to Hezbollah or state that the Guberek principals were Hezbollah operatives.<ref name="r1" />

== Trade and financial settlement ==

Noam Binstok, Orna Mizrahi and Esteban Klor’s May 2026 INSS analysis explains that trade, exchange businesses and informal offsets can work together to settle value. The distinction helps explain why goods, bank payments and obligations between intermediaries need not follow the same route. In the Guberek account, Treasury supplied the allegation about company accounts returning proceeds to Colombia. The INSS model provides context for the mechanism without identifying an additional Panamanian transfer to [[Hezbollah]].<ref name="r6" />

== See also ==
* [[Hezbollah Business Affairs Component]]
* [[Lebanese Canadian Bank]]

== References ==
<references>
<ref name="r1">[https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jl2002 Treasury, Guberek network designation, 9 July 2013]</ref>
<ref name="r2">[https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20130709 OFAC,Kingpin Act Designations,9July2013]</ref>
<ref name="r5">[https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-20-333.pdf GAO, Trade-Based Money Laundering,April2020]</ref>
<ref name="r3">[https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20160929 OFAC, Kingpin Act Designations; Counter Narcotics Designations Removals, 29 September 2016]</ref>
<ref name="r4">[https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2013/07/09/colombian-nationals-charged-international-drug-money-laundering Colombian Nationals Charged In International Drug Money Laundering Conspiracy]</ref>
<ref name="r6">[https://www.inss.org.il/publication/hezbollah-finance/ Hezbollah’s Global Financial Network as a Target in the War Against the Organization]</ref>
</references>

''Legal and sanctions status as of 7 October 2026.''

[[Category:Money-laundering methods]]
[[Category:Guberek network]]

Shell-company accounts in the Guberek network - Revision history

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