How Richard Fifer of Petaquilla Minerals (PTQ.to) treats his business partners

This month we've already seen the conviction papers that explain in clear detail how Richard Glenn Fifer Carles of Panama (and not some homonym in Miami) was convicted of narcotrafficking back in the 1970s, with half a dozen or so examples of  cocaine and marijuana pushing brought before the court, his conviction, his time locked away and his probation. So yes, despite his denials on the matter (he's now trying to play with his own name, call himself "Richard Carles Fifer" and confuse people into believing it's not him, FWIW) we know he's a convicted felon. But as a few mailers have pointed out, it was a long time ago, he did his probation and kept out of trouble afterwards and perhaps there's good reason to give him the benefit of the doubt and not to assume that leopards never change their spots.

Fair enough, so let's move on and see how Richard Fifer of Petaquilla (PTQ.to) treats people he goes into business with, shall we? This link will take you to a court decision in Panama dated May 4th 2000 regarding the case brought against Richard Fifer (via his company Minamerica Corporation) by Julio Benedetti (via his company Inversiones Geologicas SA). The court decision is in Spanish, but it's pretty clear stuff for those versed in the language and the main judgement is that Fifer (via his company) was ordered to pay back U$475,000 to Benedetti (via his company).OK, so Fifer lost his case, but the details of the action show Fifer in his true light. By way of a brief summary of the case, here are a few bullet points:

• In 1994, Inversiones Geologicas (the Benedetti company) lent Minamerica (the Fifer company) U$400,000 at a rate of interest of 9.25% annual. This interest was calculated to 1998 and explians the $475,000 total judgement against Fifer. 

• Fifer then got his company to lend him the money. In other words, he cleaned out Minamerica of all cash assets and we assume lived his own style of highlife on the $400k. And hey, that kind of wedge buys more than a single round of mojitos.

• When Benedetti (via his company) asked for his money back (we assume he went through the normal protocolar channels to do so), Fifer said something to the effect of "Minamerica is bankrupt, it has no money left, it's not my problem, sorry dude, you lose".

• So Benedetti then somehow finds out that Fifer asset stripped the company, pulled a fast one and was living on the money borrowed out of a company that he himself bankrupted.

• Then to the courts. Benedetti won.

Listen, those bullet points above are a mix of the facts of the case and a tad of interpretation of what probably went on, so I highly recommend you download your own copy and get the full info yourself. But even if the interpretation is a bit loose, we're really not going to be far away from the substance of Richard Fifer's idea of doing business. This very same dude now runs a gold mine in Panama! FerCryinOutLoud, you must be mad to put your cash to work under the auspices of a scumbag drug dealing fraudster like this. DYODD.

Mo' Richard Fifer

A lot of very interesting feedback and reaction to the post yesterday on Richard Fifer, chairman of Petaquilla Minerals (PTQ.to) so far, and for what it's worth I've spent a good chunk of this morning forwarding the original PDF to people (perhaps people with a slower download link speed are having the problems, because others get to download the 4.9Mb PDF without grief).

One point raised by a couple of mails has been "OK he did prison time for cocaine dealng but dude, it was 1975, he did his probation and may have turned over a whole new leaf" or words to that effect. Well maybe, as long as he had by then turned over a new leaf by and since then has been an upstanding member of the bizworld. Unfortuntely for the people who have had dealing with Fifer since his drug dealing days that's a crock, so next up we'll show you how he tried to defraud another member of the Panama mining community to the tune of nearly U$500,000 in the 1990's (with all the necessary documentary evidence, of course) and only got reeled in by the courts six years after the scam he pulled. New leaf my ass. Watch this space.

Richard Fifer, convicted drug dealer and chairman of Petaquilla Minerals (PTQ.to)

Don't fret, kissing one's wife at Christmas is not illegal

I think we'll just go with the facts on this one. Back when Richard Fifer (Chairman of the Petaquilla Minerals (PTQ.to) and vendor of the Panama Copper project to Inmet) was a youth of 18, he spent his days selling marijuana and cocaine in the US controlled canal zone of Panama. Y'know, just like any other scumbag who wanted to get rich and didn't care how it happened. That is until he got caught, arrested, thrown in jail and sent up before the judge where he pleaded guilty to the charges of both possession and distribution.

He was given a sentence of 18 months in jail, of which 90 days was under lock-up and the other 15 months suspended under four years of probation. He kept his nose clean during his probation period and was eventually discharged from probation by the courts. So how do we know all these details about a past that Richard Glenn Fifer Jr has always been at pains to deny ever happened? Simple; we've read the court documents, checked them for veracity and found them to be factual. Now you can check them out too, by downloading a PDF of the docs from right here (the file is 4.8Mb, so give it a bit of time, yeah?).

UPDATE: A couple of people have now written in saying they've had trouble downloading the PDF file (while others have had no such problem). If you're having problems, mail me and I'll send you a copy by return (but make sure your mailbox can handle a 5Mb dump).

Regarding Richard Fifer of Petaquilla Minerals (PTQ.to), cocaine, marijuana and prison

Richard Fifer, cocaine dealer

IKN would like to make it clear that Richard Glenn Fifer Carles, erstwhile governor of the Coclé region of Panama, qualified geologist and Chairman and main force behind Panama gold company Petaquilla Minerals (PTQ.to), does not have a criminal record for marijuana dealing.

The truth is that he has a criminal record for cocaine and marijuana dealing and has done his time in prison for the crimes committed, too.

Yeah, really. This guy is a drug dealing scumbag and the truth is upon us. Watch this space next week for the dirty details that he's tried to keep covered up for years.