SCAM Immigration Lawyer, Panama
We had an absolutely horrific experience with this conman lawyer, MOISÉS FRAGUELA LOPER. He and his associate Tjaart Steenberg robbed my family of over $10,000 USD.
My girlfriend and I wanted to move to Panama with our baby girl to start a new life. While visiting panama, I was approached by Tjaart Steenberg, who sold us one of Moisés Fraguela’s immigration packages, promising to get us residency visas to live in Panama.
I paid him and his associate over $10,000 USD for Panama residency visas for me and my family.
Now, 12 months later I have nothing but an empty bank account and a bitter taste in my mouth.
Moisés Fraguela Loperr never applied for the visa. He only made excuse after excuse, month after month, to delay the process and avoid applying for the visa.
I believe that the visa route that we were sold was bogus and isn’t an official visa that even exists. The normal route involves paying 200k into a panamanian bank, what Moises was selling was a way around this requirement, which of course we were delighted to accept. But it turned out to be a scam.
Moving the goal posts:
Initially, I was advised by the pair that they should apply for my visa first and then apply for my baby and girlfriend thereafter. Three months into the process, after I had already paid about over 5,000 USD, and after absolutely no activity had occurred with regard to my visa application, I insisted on a meeting with Moises. During this call I was informed by Moises that I needed to marry my girlfriend to get the visa. This new alarming news came with significant extra fees for marriage services sold by Moisés Fraguela Loper. This also would mean a major change to my life and the initial strategy sold by Moises’ colleague Tjaart.
I agreed to get married, and paid the extra fees, because I didn’t want to jeopardise my visa application, or forfeit my initial investment of legal fees already paid to Moisés Fraguela Loper.
Moises succeeded in arranging the marriage on the 1st of July 2023, but it took months of chasing, threatening and nagging to get a valid marriage certificate.
Fake Document:
The next task that was allegedly required in order for my family to qualify for a Panamanian visa, was to create a Panamanian business. We were told that the business needed to hire me, and then we would get an employee visa.
Initially during the first three months of non-activity, the one thing I was told that was completed was the business registration. was fully registered and I was given a bunch of registration documents.
Due to the continuous delay regarding the marriage certificate, I decided to get independent legal advice from another lawyer, about what to do about the hopeless situation with Moisés Fraguela Loper. This other lawyer examined the business registration documents that the pair had given us, and informed us, they were not legitimate!! Moises had not registered the business and seemingly created false documents to trick us – and it worked – until we spoke to another lawyer.
When challenged Moises about this. Moisés Fraguela Loper, only then started to register the business properly. This process took many months, during which time we were frequently fed lies about progress and timelines, or otherwise completely ignored.
Eventually, after 9 months, we got what we believe to be a registered Panamanian company but who really knows?
Next comes the actual Panamanian residency visa part. The last hurdle we thought. But we thought wrong. It never happened. Moises agreed a date for the visa submission, but he then just disappeared, and we never heard from him again.
Moisés Fraguela Loper delayed the application day as much as he possibly could. He turned what was supposed to be a 2 -3 month process into a never ending process, 12 months later we were forced to just give up. We are not Panamanian residents so we can’t stay in the country indefinitely. Moises knows this, so that’s why I think we was delaying the process.
Between a string of false promises, false timelines, and apologies, excuses and vague answers, it became clear that Moisés Fraguela Loper was trying to tire us out. He was simply hoping that we would give up and leave Panama once our second tourist visa expired.
We are being forced to leave Panama empty handed, but we are also going after him for malpractice.
Be Alert
Moisés Fraguela Loper will soon be getting reported to the Panamanian Bar Association for malpractice and for breaching the code of conduct on several accounts. Furthermore, Moisés Fraguela Loper will be under criminal investigation by the Public Ministry as we will be submitting our case there too
This review of Moisés Fraguela Loperr and his Panama immigration services is aimed at helping other expats and indeed good Panamanian people, so they don’t get scammed like we did. Stay safe. Be careful, and do your due diligence. And please for the love of god, never hire a Panamanian lawyer by the name of Moisés Fraguela Loper.
NXT Lehrling
