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Johnny Gabs Takes Kingpin Case To US Court
posted (July 24, 2017)
For almost 5 years now, Stann Creek businessman John Zabaneh has been battling with king pin designation from the US Treasury Department. The Treasury Office of Foreign Asset's named him as an associate of the Mexican drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, and the Sinaloa Cartel.

Well, American press reports say that he is now fighting back. His US attorneys have filed a lawsuit against the US Treasury Department.

The designations under the King Pin Act "prohibits US persons from conducting financial and commercial transactions with these individuals and companies, and also freezes any assets they may have under US Jurisdiction."

In Zabaneh's lawsuit, filed last week, he states that the designation was "arbitrary and capricious" and in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. Zabaneh is asking for the DC court to revoke his designation and consider any forms of "relief" that seem proper in the case.

He is referring to the financial difficulties he faced after his business struggled to remain profitable - a business which was then handed over to his mother, and, then, cut off from the banana industry and left to die.

So, why did he take so long to get a lawsuit going? Well, he explained 2 years ago, that it's a matter of urgency, but the attorneys were looking for a lot of money. We have comments combined from two interviews:

FILE: March 4, 2014
Jules Vasquez
"Why is it so important for you personally to be removed from this king pin designation? You can't travel to the United Stated."

Johnny Zabaneh, Refutes Kingpin Status
"Because it's wrong, it's false. I want to get back my life for myself, my family. I want back my life that I can go back to my farming and I don't need that to go into drugs."

FILE: October 1, 2015
Johnny Zabaneh, Refutes Kingpin Status
"I contacted US attorneys to deal with this thing, because it's in the US that this thing has to be dealt with. They want a million dollars advance and why you think? A man that is second in command to Chapo Guzman, a million dollars is small change. So they start off believing this bull and then I just said to hell with it. I don't have it and if I have it I don't have it to give away. So I am dealing with it directly and personally. I'm in connection and I am saying this to the world. Every will be hearing what I am saying. I am dealing and communicating directly with Washington and OFAC."

Obviously those meetings that Zabaneh claims to have been having with the Americans did not work out, so now he's taking them to court to have the designation lifted. Since being designated, Zabaneh's farming and business fortunes have taken a nose dive.

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