HOME

 

Fred Salaff On His Panamanian Ordeal

He writes on ADT Jan 24, 2006 from Panama City, Panama:

I have just registered on this site to answer directly and first hand any questions you may have about our case in Panama. Some questions that I have seen come up:

Did Devils Films hire you? Yes, I was hired by Mike [Rubinstein] as was Sebastian Pujos (Tristan Seagal). We both received money before production (I have the bank wire confirmations as evidence). I also have emails from Andy, the in house production manager for Devils in which he gives me payment schedule details.

Yes, I spent (along with Simone) 7 horrible months in the worst prisons imagineable. Pujos promised me after I agreed to accept all blame (very stupid on my part to have trusted him) that he would get Mike to cover my legal expenses, go to the world press, scream and shout about our situation! But he never did anything effective that any of us saw. He abandoned his friends and the actors Yanick Batiste, Joerge Jopke, and Patrick Zabka. Stefano and I are still suffering needlessly in an absurd case.

The only thing we are charged with is corruption of minors, although there were no minors involved at any time. We are charged with knowing that kids could climb a neighbor's tree and look over my 10 foot wall and get corrupted!

If anyone sent in donations to my legal defense fund while I was in jail I can only apologize if thanks were not made by my well meaning friends. Since I am out, under country wide arrest, I personally thank each and every donor, no matter the amount. Unfortunately, donations are very small towards the legal bills, which are over $50,000. This figure is actually quite low compared to US standards but represents a lifelong payback for me and another blow to my sanity.

If anyone has ever read Kafka's "The Trial" they only need to know my story to know that novel of the absurd. Please ask me any questions you care to and for heaven's sake please keep asking Mike Rubenstein why he abandoned us.

Fred Salaff writes Feb 5:

Latest news in our case is that the judge sent the file back to the prosecutor saying that there is nothing to the charges! We knew that all along and so did everyone else. So, now we wait until the prosecutor gives up and throws in the towel. Hopefully, this will come soon and we will free once and for all.

I can feel we're very close because the Attorney general of Panama was quoted last week of saying that the country's prosecutors did not know how to run investigations. She also visited the prison where I was held and declared that indeed there were gross human rights violations. All this comes a year too late for me and Stefano Simone!

6/23/06

Panama Porno Producers Behind Shady Cancer Treatment Scheme

When we first read about a new cancer treatment being offered in and from Panama, we were happy to learn that progress did exist after all in our country. But that was a mistake. Within days after our first inquiries about a website called "Escorpion Azul", we found ourselves surrounded by filth in the form of a group of unscrupulous individuals preying on desperate cancer patients to make a buck or two.

...Soon after we started looking into the mysterious corporation, we received an email from Fred Salaff. Readers of this website will remember that name. Salaff is a US citizen residing in Panama who found himself at the center of a high profile pornography scandal when police raided his house in Veracruz where at that time a porn movie was being recorded. Noriegaville reported about the case. Salaff spent 7 months in prison before being conditionally released, and the trial is scheduled for October 24th of this year in the La Chorrera court.

One would think that someone in Salaff's position would try to stay out of trouble, but as it turns out he is a key figure behind the escorpionazul website. Writes Salaff: "the work that I am doing with Escozul is very gratifying as patients who have received the blue scorpion venom are very very happy with the results."

...[T]he man behind Escorpion Azul S.A. is Ruben Tribaldos III. He is of the family that manages a real estate company and is also connected to the American Gun Shop in Panama City, which is also listed as his office address on his own website.

...The only experience he appears to have with physical matters is that at the time he started Escorpion Azul, he also owned and managed a pornography site at seevoyeur.com. "Come inside and take a look at thousands of Very Hard Core Amateur Photos updated every day!!!"

As Tribaldos, being a good businessman, tried to contain costs on this enterprise, he "borrowed" some pictures that belonged to that other pornography producer, Fred Salaff. The latter protested, and that's how these two got to know each other. They've been working together since.

"Ruben Tribaldos helped me the most while I was in prison. No one else did what he did to make my life bearable as well as organize outside financial help and coordinate my family contacts. I owe Ruben a lot because no one can ever know just how shitty and miserable it is to be a prisoner in Panamanian jails, especially La Joyita, unless they've been there," Fred Salaff wrote us.