$68 Million Passed On to Panama

Northville Industries, operator of the trans-Panama oil pipeline, has become the first U.S. company to hand over corporate funds to Panama that had been blocked by U.S. economic sanctions during the regime of Gen. Manuel A. Noriega.

Through a wire transfer to a Panama City branch of Chase Manhattan Bank on Friday, Northville paid the new government of Guillermo Endara $68 million, which represents back taxes and other obligations to Panama from the operations of the pipeline. The money was then transferred to the central bank of Panama, a Northville official said.

In 1987, before imposition of the sanctions, the Noriega government earned $100 million on the pipeline--a sum that accounted for about 10% of Panama’s gross national product.