What is established from the court record is that the couple had spent a significant portion of their fraud proceeds on Panamanian property and had formed a company—Jaguar Properties—as the vehicle for these purchases. They had also moved approximately $1 million to Panama, according to the Court of Appeal’s characterization, encompassing both fraud proceeds and money from property sales. This is the financial architecture of people who intended to live there, not people who were investigating it speculatively.
The absence of an extradition treaty between Panama and the United Kingdom was a feature of the arrangement that Detective Inspector Andy Greenwood mentioned explicitly after Darwin’s arrest—expressing concern that Darwin could have fled back to Panama before arrest if the process had moved more slowly. Whether the Darwins had this in mind when they chose Panama is not established in the available record. It is consistent with a calculated choice. It is also consistent with Panama simply having been attractive for the reasons it was attractive to many British retirees and investors.
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## The Role of Contingency
The Darwin case would have ended differently if a number of contingencies had played out differently. The colleague who overheard the phone call might not have reported it. The photograph might not have been posted publicly on the Move To Panama website. The member of the public who found it through a Google Images search might not have been looking, or might not have known who to contact, or might have decided it wasn’t their business. The Mirror might not have received the tip or might have chosen to sit on it. John Darwin might have left England before an arrest warrant was issued.