Odebrecht Corruption & Hearing

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Incompetence wherever you look

Posted 09/01/2022

The Panamanian State has legal instruments to collect from Odebrecht the money that it promised to pay in fines, after recognizing the payment of bribes to officials of previous governments. They are $ 220 million, of which it has paid a part, but never honored the commitments corresponding to 2019, 2020, and 2021. Odebrecht has investments in Panama and unfinished state works, the payments of which can serve to amortize its debt, but the diligence of the officials to assert our rights as victims is more than reprehensible. It is the same negligence that other government actors are proud of, such as the comptroller, who not only folds his arms while the mayors continue to abuse their position, increasing their income to $10,000 or more but has justified them, opening the doors wide for these cheeks to steal by the handful while he goes to the Assembly to scrub us that he does not intend to do anything. In other words, the assault is justified if other scoundrels approve. As things are going, Panamanians could not only do without the deputies but also the comptroller. Incompetence wherever you look. – LA PRENSA, Jan. 9.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/opinion/incompetence-wherever-you-look

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Judge rejects Martinelli appeal in Odebrecht bribery case

Posted 20/01/2022

The Third Liquidator Court for Criminal Cases rejected an appeal filed by Importadora Ricamar, SA, ( the company name of Super 99) within the process that is being followed for the bribes that the construction company Odebrecht confessed to having paid to Panamanian officials and politicians.

This is a controversial incident promoted by Shirley Castañeda, a lawyer for Importadora Ricamar, against the September 28, 2020, investigation of Alejandro Garuz Adames, who at that time was listed as the legal representative of the company.

Judge Baloisa Marquínez declared the controversial incident unproven, on January 13, 2022. The parties were notified through an edict, set on January 18.

Importadora Ricamar is on the list of defendants that the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office requests to be summoned to trial, for alleged money laundering. She is the only legal person on the list of defendants. The preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for July 18.

The prosecution investigated Importadora Ricamar since it received money from Odebrecht through the company Caribbean Holding Services, Ltd., from Aaron Ronny Mizrachi, brother-in-law of former President Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014).

Martinelli and his two sons, as well as Mizrachi, are on the list of defendants. Ricardo Alberto and Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares have even already pleaded guilty to receiving bribes from Odebrecht, and they are currently detained in New York; awaiting sentence in May

In September 2020, Mizrachi told prosecutors that in 2009, in the midst of the race for the Presidency of the Republic, Martinelli contacted him to receive a $4 million donation from Odebrecht for his campaign. The first donation arrived on January 13 of that year. According to the investigation, that was only the beginning of many other donations.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/judge-rejects-martinelli-appeal-in-odebrecht-bribery-case

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Odebrecht reneges  on  bribery debt payment

Posted 04/03/2022

Once again, Odebrecht has breached the terms of the agreement to return $220 million to the Panamanian State, as a result of exchanging bribes with officials during the Ricardo Martinelli administration (2009-2014). From 2017 to date, Odebrecht has paid $52 million, reluctantly and only after the prosecution complained to a compliance judge.

As we go, history will repeat itself every year, because everything indicates that Odebrecht will do the same and will try to ignore the subsequent quotas. The authorities should consider a renegotiation with Odebrecht of the terms of the agreement, in order to make the payment of the debt with Panama effective, disposing of the company's assets in this country, since it is not a question of a year of non-compliance, but of various. Simply, we should not expect that one fine day this company will tell us that it is bankrupt. With the main prosecutors of the case on vacation, those who remain are silent spectators: they do not take the initiative to fix a problem that can get worse. Hopefully, this new breach will wake up those responsible for collecting the money. - LA PRENSA, Mar.4.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/opinion/odebrecht-reneges-on-bribery-debt-payment

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Judge will rule on Lavo Jato trial call next month

Prosecutor Isis Soto

Posted 08/03/2022

Judge Baloisa Marquínez accepted the term allowed by the Law to decide whether to call the 32 people who are being investigated in the "Lava Jato" (Car wash) case to trial for alleged money laundering.

On Tuesday, March,the preliminary hearing in the Third Court for the Settlement of Criminal Cases ended with the arguments of the defense attorneys.

The Public Ministry, represented by prosecutors Isis Soto and Marcos Mosquera, is requesting the call to trial for the 32 linked. In addition, they requested dismissal for four of the defendants and provisional dismissal for two others.

The defense attorneys requested the definitive dismissal of their clients and the lifting of all precautionary measures.

The investigation began in 2014, based on reports linking the now-defunct law firm Mossack Fonseca with the alleged commission of the crime of money laundering, in relation to the so-called "Lava Jato" operation, in Brazil.

The then Brazilian judge Sergio Moro, a key player in the corruption investigations in Brazil, assured that there was evidence that the firm provided the necessary services for the opening of offshore companies for at least four agents involved in the money laundering scheme.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/judge-will-rule-on-lavo-jato-trial-call-next-month-1

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US offers $5  million reward for info on beneficiaries of bribery scandal

Posted 29/03/2022

The United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of  Investigation (FBI) announced that a reward of 5 million dollars is being offered for information on the Odebrecht case.

The United States seeks to find those who benefited from and allowed the bribery scandal of the Brazilian construction company.

In a statement from the Treasury Department, that they are seeking information leading to the seizure, immobilization, forfeiture, or repatriation of bribes or assets linked to bribes paid by Odebrecht and Braskem SA.

Individuals who provide information may be eligible for the US Department of the Treasury Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Rewards Program.

They point out that Odebrecht is a global construction conglomerate based in Brazil, which admitted in its plea agreement with the US Justice Department that it paid $788 million in bribes to government officials in 12 countries, including Angola, Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Mozambique, Panama, Peru and Venezuela between 2001 and 2016.

Ricardo Alberto and Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares, sons of the former President of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli, are detained in the US after pleading guilty to money laundering, of bribes paid by Odebrecht.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/us-offers-5-million-reward-for-info-on-beneficiaries-of-bribery-scandal

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Date set for Odebrecht multi-million delinquency hearing

Posted 04/06/2022

A compliance court of the First Judicial District of Panama will hold a hearing on June 15 to address the delinquency of the $220  million fine imposed on the Odebrecht company, as a result of the collaboration agreement agreed with the Public Ministry in 2017.

The legal advisor of the Panama Metro, Juan Cedeño, will participate in that hearing and will be questioned about the contractual relationship between the entity and Odebrecht.

The judge requires information on the payments that the State has pending to the construction company for the Panama Metro project.

This was raised at the hearing on May 17 by Oswaldo Fernández, the construction company's lawyer. That day, Fernández argued that Odebrecht needs to pay subcontractors and provide maintenance to lines 1 and 2 of the subway.

The anti-corruption prosecutor Anilú Batista said in the last hearing that she had had a meeting with Cedeño and that he informed her that, since last April 26, the Metro has been in charge of maintenance, with other companies that offer the service, since the contract with Odebrecht expired that same month.

The companies Constructora Norberto Odebrecht, SA and Constructora Norberto Odebrecht Panamá, SA, subsidiaries in Panama of the Brazilian Odebrecht (today Novonor), have only paid $52 million, between voluntary payments and withholding orders.

A fine of $220 million was imposed for the bribes paid to officials and politicians in exchange for contracts with the State and for the use of the country's financial system to launder those bribes.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/date-set-for-odebrecht-multi-million-delinquency-hearing

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Frontman for former finance minister remains in jail

Frank De Lima

Posted 05/09/2022

José Luis Saiz Villanueva, one of those involved in the Odebrecht bribery case, will remain in prison after the First Superior Court of Justice did not admit protection of constitutional guarantees filed by Saiz against the decision of the Superior Court of Appeals to send him to prison, after the breach of the penalty and collaboration agreement for which he had to return to the State $750,000.

The ruling, under the presentation of Judge Ariadne M. García and dated August 22, concluded that no violation of Saiz's constitutional guarantees was observed. The court indicated that, when examining the recording of the hearing, no indications were perceived to agree to review the decision of the Court of Appeals, since there was no violation of the guarantees of the accused.

Saiz is serving a sentence of 47 months in prison because he did not comply with the collaboration agreement and sentence that he agreed with the Public Ministry, on December 18, 2017.

In the agreement, Saiz confessed to having been a figurehead for the former Minister of Economy and Finance, Frank De Lima, and, as such, served as an intermediary to receive at least $7 million from Odebrecht.

Odebrecht trial
The preliminary hearing of the Odebrecht case is scheduled for September 12 to 30; this, after it was suspended on July 18 due to the absence of several defense attorneys who presented medical excuses.

At that time, the anti-corruption prosecutor Ruth Morcillo announced that she will request a summons to trial for 50 people investigated for alleged money laundering, including former presidents Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014) and Juan Carlos Varela (2014-2019).

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/frontman-for-former-finance-minister-remains-in-jail

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No room for delays in Odebrecht case

Posted 09/09/2022

The revelations and convictions of the Martinelli Linares brothers for their participation in the Odebrecht case in the United States, focus attention and deepen expectations about what will happen in Panama, on Monday when the preliminary hearing begins, in which two former presidents appear, Ricardo Martinelli and Juan Carlos Varela reports TVN.

Former Attorney General, Ana Matilde Gómez, has said that the things on the road that have been clarified in other latitudes, allow us to demand forceful action from Panamanian justice because one can no longer speak of political persecution in the Odebrecht case, one cannot talk about campaign donations or persecution to prevent them from participating in the next election.

"The truth has already been forceful in other countries where there were convictions, but there is another even stronger one, which is the confession of the children of former President Martinelli regarding the corruption plot that constituted Odebrecht," said Gómez, noting that these facts impose justice and the judge of the case "an overwhelming force that is the truth".

She recalled that when Odebrecht arrived in Panama, in the government of Martín Torrijos, he realized the opportunity because there were light officials for easy money, but in the Martinelli government, this overflowed because each contracted public work became a screen to get easy money that comes out of the budget we all pay with taxes.

Collaboration agreements
She said that the file is complete, it has strong evidentiary elements such as effective collaboration agreements with people within the process who made known how the corruption plot took place, people who quickly admitted their guilt, confessed who participated and went on to serve their sentence.

"This is a very complex case, which is well prepared and the crime is proven and that is what the judge is going to qualify in the preliminary phase,” she said.

Regarding the investigations being carried out against the Martinelli Linares brothers, who are serving sentences in the US for the same case, Gómez said that the mechanisms used in the corruption plot could generate countless crimes in different modalities and that The Public Ministry may reveal

The expectation is focused on how what was said in the US will be used in the investigation in Panama.

The fact that the relatives do not enter the Panamanian process, there are sufficient merits to call a trial and convict all the people that the Public Ministry could link , even those who have been provisionally dismissed.

“It is a double standard to call one a donation and call another corruption. It may be a different criminal modality, somewhere I heard the lawyer say that he was not a public servant, but for money laundering, you do not need to be a public servant”.

For the Gomez, many Panamanians are understanding the relationship between taxes-budgets-payment of public works, which was not understood before, but it is already understood that when the State pays a contractor it does not pay out of the Presidents' pockets and when bribes are paid It is the same money with which the work is paid, the money is within the surcharge.“All those who received payment from Odebrecht are criminals, no matter how they want to disguise themselves. In the Odebrecht case, what happened with public money cannot be forgotten,” she said.

Closing-off impunity
Gomez said there is enormous pressure on the justice system and high demand for results because the only 'salvation' is to close the space for impunity because we are the only country that has not visibly had forceful action by Justice.

She said there is no room for more delays, justice has a weight on its shoulders to rescue the credibility of the system to close the spaces of impunity.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/no-room-for-delays-in-odebrecht-case

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Two former presidents face money laundering hearing

Judge Baloiza Marquínez

Posted 12/09/2022

The Odebrecht case, one of the largest corruption cases in the country's history, began on Monday, September 12.

Prior to the hearing, the legal defense of former President Ricardo Martinelli announced that on February 3 they filed a challenge against Judge Baloiza Marquínez, based on lack of impartiality, and violation of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Prosecutor Ruth Morcillo stated that there are enough elements that will allow these former public officials to be sanctioned for profiting from state money.

In total, there are 48 persons and one legal entity charged with the crime of money laundering and corruption of public servants, for whom the Prosecutor's Office will request a summons to trial.

Former presidents
Among those who will be called to trial are former presidents Ricardo Martinelli and Juan Carlos Varela, among other former officials.

The investigation into the Odebrecht case in Panama was opened in 2015, was filed, then reopened in 2017, and ended in October 2018 with about 80 defendants. The file consists of 2,755 volumes with more than 1.1 million pages, according to data from the Judicial Branch.

The case was reopened after Odebrecht confessed in the United States that it had paid millions in bribes in a dozen countries, for which it was fined $2.6 billion.

The preliminary hearing should have started on July 18, but the absence of some defense attorneys prevented it, so it was rescheduled for an alternate date.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/two-former-presidents-face-money-laundering-hearing-1

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Odebrecht hearing– Judge dismisses nine appeals on first day

Posted 13/09/2022

Judge Baloisa Marquínez dismissed nine appeals – mostly from lawyers representing former president Ricardo Martinelli - that sought to suspend the preliminary hearing in the Odebrecht case on Monday, September 12 during the first day of the act.

After resolving these incidents, the hearing continued with the reading of the prosecutor's file which contains the arguments of the prosecution to request a trial of 49 people and a company for the alleged commission of the crime of money laundering. Tuesday’s hearing will likely be devoted to the continuation of reading by the prosecution of the nearly 900-page document.

The document highlights that in Panama corrupt payments were made to government officials and intermediaries who worked for them, among other things, public works contracts and establishes, for example, the payments made through the structural operations department for the benefit of two close relatives of a high-ranking Panamanian government official in order to ensure their participation and payment of the company in contracts with the State.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/odebrecht-hearing-judge-dismisses-nine-appeals-on-first-day-3

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Corruption  charges prescribed for  ex-ministers but money laundering cases stay

Papadmitriu, De Lima and Ford face Money laundering charges.

Posted 13/09/2022

On Monday, September, 12 the first day of the preliminary hearing in the Odebrecht case, Judge Baloisa Marquínez prescribed the crime of corruption, in favor of former ministers Demetrio Papadimitriu, Frank De Lima, and Jaime Ford.

However the former officials continue to be prosecuted for the crime of money laundering, in a case where there are more than 50 people identified as being linked to the Odebrecht corruption plot in Panama.

Demetrio 'Jimmy' Papadimitriu said "I am totally innocent... I did not receive any bribes (from Odebrecht)", upon his arrival at the Gil Ponce Palace of Justice, where the hearing took place.

Former Minister Frank De Lima also gave statements and said that the people who accuse him have been pressured by the justice system, including imprisonment. "They leave them stored until they say what the prosecution wanted them to say in their time." And he announced that "all this will be clarified by the defense."

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/corruption-charges-prescribed-for-ex-ministers-but-money-laundering-cases-stay-1

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Names of Martinelli’s inner circle surface at hearing

Posted 14/09/2022

The nearly 900 pages being read by Prosecutor Ruth  Ruth Morcillo before Judge Baloisa Marquínez details the formation of the corruption scheme used for the alleged money laundering by former officials of the Panamanian government and is the opportunity that citizens have to listen to the narration of the case, to know what was investigated, what facts were corroborated, what people, former public officials are being investigated and other details she said on arriving at the Supreme  Court on Tuesday.

She recalled that there is an agreement with the Odebrecht company for an injury to the State of more than $220 million but he did not rule out that there is more, since in the investigation it was possible to corroborate that the sum to the detriment of the State is substantial.

They continued reading the investigation of Rosa Marín Molino Paz, in which the way in which the law firm Rosas & Rosas operated, in which she does not accept the charges that were investigated since she indicates that she did not know that the transfer services provided to Norberto Odebrecht came from illegal activities.

The former deputy Jorge Rosas Rodríguez, who was a member of the firm Rosas & Rosas, an investigation, indicated that from 2009 to 2018 he was on leave because he was elected as a deputy, assuring that during the periods he held an elected position was practically totally unrelated to forensic practice.

Regarding his relationship with  Odebrecht, he stated that it began in 2004, when he returned to the firm not having been reelected. One day he met the legal representative André Rabelo and the first matter he handled was Rabelo's residence lease, and then he handled corporate matters for Constructora Norberto Odebrecht Panama and Brazil, as well as a third company.

He stressed that when he did business with the company he was not an official, he did not manage public works contracts, nor was he involved in bidding processes.

The investigation indicates that it was possible to verify the payment orders delivered in a degree of collaboration by Odebrecht the existence of the company Pivotal Corp, which also records illicit payments received through different structures created by Odebrecht for the payment of bribes to officials.

Pivotal Investments SA , registered in Panama, had as final beneficiary Carlos Ho González, former director of Special Projects of the Ministry of Public Works), but was dissolved on June 17, 2010, through which it was established, and carried out the business of an investment company to buy, sell, and consumer goods, real estate, stocks, bonds, and more.

Ho detailed how the cost overruns were made in works such as the extension of the rehabilitation of Domingo Díaz Avenue, where the company set global prices for the main bridges, about 7,500 dollars per square meter of the bridge road , the values in the market at that time they were between 2,000 and 2,500 per square meter, that is, the endorsed price was more than three times the market value.

Ho was sentenced to 72 months in prison for crimes against the Public Administration in 2019, after having made an effective collaboration agreement with the Prosecutor's Office.

fictitious contracts 

In the investigation, information was obtained from the Principality of Andorra that confirms that the Aeon Group company is a shell structure used by the Odebrecht Structural Operations Department to transfer illicit money to justify said money before the banking entities. They presented fictitious contracts because they never provided the services. established.

In the investigation, Andrés León Mozes affirmed that his sister-in-law Danna Harris, who served as executive secretary of the National Council for Sustainable Development, asked him to be part of a construction equipment business for Panama and the Dominican Republic.

He indicated that the Rafult Limited company was created by Harris and owns the funds that were transferred there, which was used as support for the funds the contract with the Aeon Group company, for the sum of 3.5 million, and added that other companies were created to which funds were transferred from Rafoult Limited, but at the end of his contract with the government of Ricardo Martinelli, she requested the opening of a bank account.

“When she sees a black picture and not knowing what will happen to the funds that were in the VS bank where she was an account officer, she asks me to open an account in the Safra bank branch in Panama, it should be noted that at the time of opening the account at VS Bank, Danna Harris did not justify the funds with the contract between Rafult Limited and Aeon Group, but rather that the funds came from an inheritance during my grandfather's lifetime. At the time of opening the account at the Safra bank, it did not allow me to show the contract signed with Aeon Group”, explained León Mozes.

He said that on his wedding day, Harris called him to confess that it was a fictitious contract.

Roberto Carretero and Ramón Carretero, the latter indicated that the Corporación Logística del Caribe company was created 20 years ago with a presence in the Island of Cuba and added his brother Roberto Carretero without this implying that he had a share in the profits of the company.

Carretero assured that he had known Ricardo Francolini since 2000, he sold cement to Francolini's company and in 2010 Francolini asked him to receive transactions in his bank account opened in China, due to how difficult it was to open an account in this jurisdiction and that these funds were not related to his businesses and those of his family.

Later he found out that the payments received were related to Odebrecht, but being a businessman and collaborator of former president Ricardo Martinelli, he did not think it was illegal.

Regarding the transactions with Jaime Lasso, he said that he is his business partner and for 2011 they signed a contract for the distribution of promotional products of an electoral political nature for more than $3 million but he did not know that the funds came from Odebrecht.

In addition, he said that he knew Juan Carlos Varela and Ricardo Martinelli before they were presidents and because a small friendship unites them 

Jaime Lasso in the investigation told how the money received from Odebrecht was transferred to the vice-presidential candidate and he understands that they were declared to the Electoral Court. He said that his relationship and his support for the Panameñista party date back to 2008.

He recounted how his relationship with Odebrecht was divided from 2008-2009 prior to the elections and from 2009-2011 when the alliance was broken.

On the second day of the hearing, the testimonies of the investigations of several former officials and people who participated in the creation of corporations, bank accounts and businesses that would serve to carry out the alleged crime were heard.

Friends, relatives and acquaintances of the former officials were entangled in the plot, who gave details of how they are contacted to do business and create corporations. But they assured that they were unaware that they had illicit purposes.

The name of the brothers Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares and Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares was repeatedly named as final beneficiaries of the corporations.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/names-of-martinellis-inner-circle-surface-at-hearing

 

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Mammoth reading of evidence continues on day 3 of Odebrecht case

Staff from the Public Ministry arrive at the court for the third day of the Odebrecht heari

Posted 14/09/2022

On  Wednesday, September  14 the third day of the preliminary hearing of the Odebrecht case in Panama the prosecutor, continued the marathon reading of the  859-page summary of the case against 50 defendants she seeks to send to trial for corruption including two former presidents: Ricardo Martinelli and Juan Carlos Varela.

During the reading of the first 238 pages the names of several prominent players with alleged links to the investigation, have been revealed including the eldest son of Ricardo Martinelli, currently serving a three-year jail term in the US  after pleading to money laundering allegedly at the behest of his father.                            

It is expected to continue reading the tax hearing with the stories of the framework of the companies created to distribute illicit funds from bribes. Also, the pointing out of the names of the people who received millions in bribes, during the administration of presidents Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014) and Juan Carlos Varela (2014-2019).

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/mammoth-reading-of-evidence-continues-on-day-3-of-odebrecht-case

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Panama was betting Odebrecht hearing would never happen

Posted 15/09/2022

Panama was not prepared for such a high-profile hearing and citizens were betting that it would not take place, and it is being carried out said the presiding magistrate of the Supreme Court María Eugenia López, referring to the preliminary hearing for the Odebrecht case, cataloged as the most emblematic corruption process of recent times.

"They are complex cases, very voluminous, we did not have the structures" to carry them out, said López, in an interview on TVN Channel 2. "Panama was not prepared to deal with such high-profile cases," she acknowledged.

The magistrate pointed out that the institution has made efforts to support the judges, by providing them with the personnel they required. “Files of a million pages. How humanely does a judge review a file of that volume? ”, She commented. "High-profile cases are very complex cases," she remarked.

She referred to the poor perception of citizens about the justice administration system in the country.

Cleaning up 
"Certainly the public perception that there are cases of corruption, we cannot deny that," she said. However, she affirmed that the institution has been cleaning up when these misconducts have been detected. "The plenary session of the Court is committed to improving this public service," she assured.

On other issues, López announced that the first steps have already been taken to specify what will be the Judicial City, which will be located on donated land behind the Technological University of Panama.

She said that the Inter-American Development Bank will support with a loan –whose amount she did not specify– and that the project will be developed through the Public-Private Partnership system. She also referred to the accusatory penal system, which she said does work, but "requires procedural changes."

María Eugenia López Arias was appointed as a magistrate of the Supreme Court by President Cortizo; She was ratified by the National Assembly on December 4, 2019. She replaced Judge Jerónimo Mejía in the Second Criminal Chamber, whose period expired on December 31, 2017.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/panama-was-betting-odebrecht-hearing-would-never-happen

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Reading of giant Odebrecht file nears end on day five

Posted 16/09/2022

Prosecutor Ruth Morcillo was optimistic that on    Friday, September 16,  the fifth day of the Odebrecht corruption preliminary hearing that the reading of the prosecutor's case would be completed, to give rise to the next stage, of allegations, where -she said- the Ministry The public is ready to support what has been read so far.

On Friday the reading started on page 652 of nearly 900 and continued outlining links between former officials and individuals established, with illicit money from Odebrecht bribes.

49 citizens are accused in the criminal process. Of them, 47 natural persons and 1 legal person, for the crime of money laundering, and 1 natural person for the crime of corruption of public servants and money laundering.

The investigation of this file, which consists of 2,757 volumes, with more than 1,335,000 pages, began with a complaint filed on September 18, 2015. The Public Ministry requested legal assistance from Switzerland, which allowed for corroboration of several accounts with beneficiaries of companies of money paid in bribes, and final beneficiaries of millionaire accounts controlled by Odebrecht.

It was possible to verify by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor the network of companies, and basket accounts to receive illicit money from Odebrecht box 2, in 2009-2014.

In this act of preliminary hearing, 5 representatives of the Public Ministry, 1 plaintiff attorney, also 33 private defense attorneys and 3 public defenders at the disposal of the court, in addition to several of the defendants in this criminal case, participate.

Full weight of the law
Prosecutor Mahmad Daud Hasan said that: "There is little left to finish the reading of the prosecutor's hearing... We are prepared to support our work and request the full weight of the law for these people who took advantage of public funds."

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/reading-of-giant-odebrecht-file-nears-end-on-day-five

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Odebrecht case needs return of exited prosecutors

Posted 17/09/2022

The superior prosecutors Zuleyka Moore and Tania Sterling should return to the management of the Odebrecht case , due to the enormous challenges that the ordinary or substantive hearing will represent, in which the Public Ministry will face the 33 defense attorneys in this complex judicial process writes legal analyst Rodrigo Noriega in La Prensa.

The two officials were removed from the largest corruption case in the history of Panama by those responsible for the Public Ministry.

In May 2020, four months after taking office following his appointment by President  Cortizo , the then attorney General Eduardo Ulloa removed Moore from the Odebrecht case, alleging a rotation plan that sought to provide "greater transparency and objective” to the work of the institution.

After the surprise resignation of Ulloa  the Attorney General in charge) Javier Caraballo, would formalize Sterling's departure from the case in November 2021.

Sterling left that office after a complaint filed by the former Minister of Education, Lucy Molinar, for alleged criminal acts committed against the protected witness Euro-14. Caraballo later acknowledged that there was no evidence that Moore or Sterling had committed any crime.

Already on June 27, the prosecutor had sent Sterling on 45 days of vacation, which ended up becoming more than 9 months, until May 4, 2022, when she returned to the Public Ministry and was assigned to a family prosecutor's office. in Colon.

Her colleagues, senior prosecutors Adecio Mojica, Ruth Morcillo, Zuleyka Moore and Nahaniel Murgas, were sent on vacation from November 24, 2021, to April 14, 2022.

Only Morcillo was returned to the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office for the Odebrecht case, created in January 2017. Moore was assigned to a homicide prosecutor's office in La Chorrera.

Imminent challenge
With the conclusion of the reading of the fiscal hearing of the Odebrecht case, it is evident that the subsequent phase, which will begin with the possible summons to trial, will require the Public Ministry to strengthen its capacity to litigate the case, given that in that stage will have to evacuate the evidence, including the questioning of witnesses, and at the same time must respond to the actions of the 33 technical defenders in this process.

Such an extensive file requires that the people who are going to carry out the criminal action know first-hand all the details of the investigation and expertly handle the thousands of volumes that the case contains.

Prosecutor Morcillo has done very well with the staff that accompanies her, but with the reinforcement of her two colleagues, she would have a difficult team to beat.

In addition, there are other ongoing investigations that would benefit from the presence of senior prosecutors Moore and Sterling for their extensive knowledge of the subject. The fact that both are removed from the Odebrecht case is a prize of impunity and a reward for those who tried to dismantle this case. It is time to reverse that mistake and strengthen the first line of defense of Panamanian justice.

An interim attorney

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/odebrecht-case-needs-return-of-exited-prosecutors

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Day six of Odebrecht hearing opposition team speaks

Prosecutor Ruth Morcillo and her Public Ministry team arrive for Monday's hearing.

Posted 19/09/2022

The sixth day of the preliminary hearing of the Odebrecht case began Monday, September 19, in a court chaired by Judge Baloísa Marquínez.

The day started with the reading of opposition briefs to the mammoth five-day reading of the prosecution’s file.

José Porta, who worked in the campaign team of José Domingo Arias, presidential candidate for Cambio Democrático (CD)  in his brief, acknowledged that he was a "nominee director" in a company that was used to raise funds for the Arias campaign. However, he pointed out that he had no responsibility for running the society. He also read statements by Mónica Maura I, a publicist linked to Odebrecht, presumably exempting him from responsibility.

Then came the brief of another defendant, the former Minister of the Presidency, Demetrio Jimmy Papadimitriu.

followed by, a brief prepared on behalf of María Sol Rivera Bigas. Rivera, according to the tax hearing, had a close relationship with former president Ricardo Martinelli and would have received money as "maintenance" from Odebrecht, as declared by the former head of the construction company in Panama, André Rabello.

 After a recess, the opposition brief of the accused Michelle Lasso Barraza was read, who in her defense alleged that she did not act with "fraud" and alleged that the prosecution did not consider events that make her accusation unfeasible. She points out that her father, Jaime Lasso (also accused), managed all the bank accounts; that she only appeared as a signatory, and that at all times she limited herself to following her father's instructions.

Subsequently, the opposition brief sent by Jaime Ford, former Minister of Public Works in the Martinelli government, was read.

Information in development...

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/day-six-of-odebrecht-hearing-opposition-team-speaks

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Judge admonishes noisy Odebrecht case defense lawyers

In a protracted sixth day of the Odebrecht preliminary hearing in which Judge Baloisa Marquínez denied  25 requests for an abbreviated procedure, and admonished defense lawyers for making a  noise and turning their backs when the prosecution was presenting its case, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Mahmad Daud Hassan, asked to apply the full rigor of the criminal law to former officials, leaders of political parties and all those involved in the crime of money laundering committed after receiving bribes through various companies linked to the Brazilian company.

Hassan told the court "this is the largest robbery of public funds that the country has experienced and the largest file on money laundering. that has been seen in the history of law. He stressed that the Odebrecht company itself recognized the payment of bribes to Panamanian citizens through the company's Structured Operations Division or the so-called box 2 for the payment of bribes, through companies of Panama and many other jurisdictions. He recalled that directors of the company in Brazil, such as Marcelo Odebrecht, admitted in the investigations carried out in that country that the company used Box 2 to pay bribes to officials and political candidates in several Latin American countries.

“That was his way of operating and he did it to guarantee that he was given the contracts and to have control of the entire structure; the company controlled everything related to public works or mega-projects that took place in Panama and Latin America,” argued prosecutor Daud Hassan.

Judicial assistance from abroad 
He stated that the file contains the collaboration of judicial assistance from Brazil, Switzerland, and the United States, in which it is concluded and Odebrecht accepts that it committed the crime of money laundering.

In the case of Brazil, the prosecutor mentions that Fernando Migliaccio, who was the treasurer of Box 2, pointed out that the money paid in bribes flowed as a result of the cost overruns that entered the company and that it allowed them to generate additional funds for these payments, not only in Panama but also in the countries where it operated.

"Migliaccio reports that this department was created by Marcelo Odebrecht to make these payments of bribes or kickbacks," he said.

Disguised donations 
“Here the issue has been disguised, there has been talk of donations and they have said that at the time they received those funds, they were not public servants. It is clear from the company itself that it reached agreements with those countries, and they acknowledge that these payments were made. No company like Odebrecht is going to make a donation of 5, 10, or 20 million dollars, without expecting anything in return,” the prosecutor said.

He stated that some sectors of the defense of several defendants say that they did receive money, but they state that they received only donations.

"Gentlemen, they were not donations, they were bribes that entered camouflaged in various ways," he insisted.

In several cases other defendants, state that "they did not pay me anything", but they did receive it through interposed people, including relatives, the prosecutor stressed. With the illicit payments, the company guaranteed continuity and the solution of problems that arose within the bidding projects in which it participated.

In Switzerland,  the authorities said that Ricardo Martinelli Linares and Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares, sons of former President Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal, received transfers from the accounts of Constructora Internacional del Sur (used for illicit payments), Baxley Assets, Innovation Research Engineering and Development LTD., Hadar Assets Klienfeld Services and Trident Inter Trade. In the international assistance with Switzerland, the illicit payments made to the children of former President Ricardo Martinelli are recognized. It points out that instrumental companies controlled by Odebrecht made payments and point directly to the Martinelli Linares brothers.

”It details that, according to the Swiss authorities, the payments made by the Odebrecht companies to the Martinelli Linares brothers were dated at a time when the company was managing or carrying out large public works construction projects in Panama, and that there was a suspicion that these payments were bribes. The prosecutor said that valuable contributions were made to this investigation as a result of the agreement authorities of the US made with Odebrecht, where they pleaded guilty to all charges and acknowledged that they actually paid bribes. , and mention that they did so to officials and candidates from various countries, including Panama.

The company itself said that between 2010 and 2014 Odebrecht made corrupt payments of over $59 million to Panamanian government officials and intermediaries working for them in Panama to obtain public works contracts.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/judge-admonishes-noisy-odebrecht-case-defense-lawyers

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"No double jeopardy  for Martinelli siblings” - prosecutor

Posted 21/09/2022

With the request for a summons to trial for former President Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014), his children, former Ministers of State, and collaborators, the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office concluded its allegations phase. The preliminary hearing resumes on Thursday when the defense arguments will be heard.

When presenting Martinelli's connection with the collection of bribes, coming from the '"black box" that was later transferred to their companies and personal accounts, the Anticorruption prosecutor, Ruth Morcillo, stressed that the biggest lobbyists of the former president were his children and former ministers.

In the midst of her arguments,  the prosecutor clarified that there is no double trial in the case of the Martinelli-Linares brothers,  who were convicted in the United States.

"It is not about the same facts or the same crimes recorded in the Odebrecht Panama case," Morcillo clarified while bringing up that in this case, the defense of the Martinellis alleged from the day the sentence was handed down the possible violation of a constitutional guarantee contained in the country's Constitution regarding double jeopardy.

“The violation of the constitutional guarantee of double jeopardy should not be considered and you will see why we maintain that this is not the case. The money laundering scheme that is going to be presented is different from the facts for which they were convicted in the US.”

Morcillo, made a series of clarifications regarding the opposition briefs presented before Judge Baloisa Marquínez.

Morcillo denied that the investigation carried out so far by the Public Ministry is biased as has been insinuated because the Prosecutor's Office has a thorough analysis of the accounts that supports the traceability of how it entered, how it came out, how it was received and how the illicit proceeds of the Odebrecht corruption plot were transferred and integrated.

“It would be naive to think that a money laundering investigation is not carried out with a team of auditors and financial analysts. So, saying through some opposition briefs that the investigation carried out at this time is biased -because we do not have the analysis of the accounts- is information that has no basis ", she affirmed.

She recalled that in the file there is a preliminary report carried out by the Division of Crimes Against the Public Administration, which in 2016 was commissioned for that function.

She said that the final report on the traceability of the bribes will be incorporated into the file at the corresponding evidentiary stage, as indicated by the Court, by virtue of the fact that it was received after the tax hearing.

"Because it all illicit [money]... here at this point, we can no longer talk about legal money coming in from somewhere, all the money in Odebrecht's pay boxes is illicit.".

Finally, the Anticorruption prosecutor refuted the fact that when the file cannot be attacked, the investiture of the judge or the prosecutor is attacked, for which she asked the parties participating in the trial to limit themselves to speaking of law.

These projects were distributed "as if they were colored pencils and the former had a specific function: to solve the company's problems in exchange for a cost, which came from 'box 2' of the company.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/quotno-double-jeopardy-for-martinelli-siblings-prosecutor-1

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ODERBRECHT HEARING: Prosecution case nears end

Posted 21/09/2022

On the eighth day of the preliminary hearing of the Odebrecht bribery hearing, lead prosecutor Ruth Morcillo announced on arriving at the court on Wednesday morning that it was planned to support the 19 accusations which are why they are in the "almost final" part of the allegations, of the case.

The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, Mahmad Daud Hasan, assured that Odebrecht contributed millionaire funds to the electoral campaign of a former official presidential candidate in 2014. An amount that, according to the Public Ministry, was agreed upon with then President Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014).

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/oderbrecht-hearing-prosecution-case-nears-end

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Martinelli defense  claims political motivation in  Odebrecht hearing

Judge Baloisa Marquínez

Posted 23/09/2022

The Principle of specialty, political motivation, and complaints about the handling of the file were some of the arguments presented by lawyers for defendants in the preliminary hearing of the Odebrecht case.

Roniel Ortiz, the lawyer for former president Ricardo Martinelli, once again aired the supposed specialty principle, which, he said, protects his client. He also claimed presumed immunity as a member of the Central American Parliament as an argument to avoid charges of money laundering related to the payment of bribes by Odebrecht.

Ortiz, was the second lawyer to present his arguments on Thursday, insisted that Martinelli is protected by the principle of specialty and that the Special Prosecutor's Office Anticorruption violated its fundamental guarantees.

This, despite the fact that the Supreme and the Third Criminal Court, on different occasions, have rejected the theory and, have denied resources to the ex-president's defense was even recalled by Judge Baloisa Marquínez on September 12, when the preliminary hearing began.

Extradition
Ortiz insisted that, when the United States extradited him on June 11, 2018, Martinelli was protected by the principle of specialty and that the Public Ministry should have closed all ongoing investigations against his client, but that this was not done.

In addition, he reported that another illegality committed against his client was the fact that the prosecution continued with the investigation of the Odebrecht case, despite the fact that Martinelli at that time was a deputy of the Central American Parliament (Parlacen).

The Parlacen has been another of the flags of the defense of Martinelli to avoid legal proceedings, although in 2018 he voluntarily resigned from that regional forum so that the Court would lose jurisdiction to judge him for the puncture case. In this way, all the ongoing cases linked to him were left in the hands of the Public Ministry.

In his speech, Ortiz repeated that the process against Martinelli is of a "political nature", as he claims were the one for the punctures and all the cases that were opened to him.

At the end of his argument, he stated that "it is clear" that his client "is not Águia", the nickname that appeared on the bribe forms paid by the Odebrecht Structured Operations Sector.

Martinelli, according to what former Odebrecht boss, André Rabello declared to the Public Ministry, received at least two transfers from the construction company through Caribbean Holding Services: one for $1.6 million and another for $300,000.

Ortiz, who also reprents Martinelli's personal friend, Úrsula Banz, and Fernando Carreiro Muradas, son of Aurora Muradas, another of his friends, argued that the charges against both are unfounded since there is no evidence of their connection with the alleged corruption scheme.

Lawyers for Riccardo Francolini, Jaime Ford, Aaron Mizrachi, Evelyn Vargas and Federico Suárez, also presented their arguments. All requested dismissal.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/martinelli-defense-claims-political-motivation-in-odebrecht-hearing

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ODEBRECHT: Defense of 50 accused of “robbery of State funds” begins

Posted 24/09/2022

On Day 10 day of the preliminary hearing of the Odebrecht case,  defenders of 50 accused of money laundering,  began the task of separating their clients from the illicit activities and distorting the thesis of the Public Ministry, whose prosecutors have reiterated that the case "is solid.

During three days of pleading, they showed the country the labyrinth of companies that facilitated the bribes, pointed out the beneficiaries, and exposed the role of lawyers, banks, figureheads and officials, and politicians with the power to make decisions in multi-million dollar infrastructure projects in the country.

“The link is clear, the punishable act is accredited. Logically, the defense has to do its job, it represents these people" said prosecutor Mahmad Daud Hasan on Friday, and once again called the process a "robbery of state funds."

The first to argue was Pedro Meilán, who defends Javier Díaz Torres and Rodrigo Díaz Paredes.  He said that Díaz Torres, is a Spanish banker who worked as an assistant at Banca Privada de Andorra (BPA), linked to the constitution of companies and foundations from BPA Serveis. At BPA, Aeon Group, Klienfield Services, Ltd., Mengil International, Pachira and Ralford Limited, among others, companies that received money from Odebrecht as part of the bribery scheme, had an account.

The lawyer said that his client did not participate in the preparation of the companies, since that was the task of a law firm, which appointed the dignitaries. “He did not charge, he is not a beneficiary, he did not make a contract. He wasn't even supposed to inquire. He has not been proven to have any crime,” he told the judge.

But, the prosecution argues that Díaz Torres was "aware of the business structures devised and built through the subsidiary of the bank."

Meilán began the defense of Díaz Paredes for the transfers he received from Kleinfeld Services, another of the companies used by Odebrecht

He branded the inquiries and the tax hearing as “copy and paste“ and the international bribery crime cannot be applied to his client, because it came into force in 2008 and the last transfer received by his client was in February 2008. “All the precepts of legitimate defense are violated. They have violated the right to defense, ” he said.

According to the prosecution, Díaz Paredes received money from Kleinfeld Services in Inversora Villa Loly, SA ($1.1 million) and Logaro, SA ($545,818).

Díaz Paredes was a leader of the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). He was the fifth undersecretary of the powerful National Executive Committee when Martín Torrijos was the general secretary of the party and, at the time, he was president (2004-2009).

Díaz was also a key figure in "Team Martín that led Torrijos to the Presidency. "They are trying to put everyone in jail and that is not correct," said Meilán.

Andorran bankers
Alexander Allard argued in favor of Norberto Sanguinetti and Frances Xavier Pérez Giménez, former BPA bankers.

Sanguinetti is related to the Aeon Group company, which transferred millionaire funds to several of those investigated in the process.

"He is a manager, not an account opener, much less worked in Odebrecht's private banking,"

Pérez Giménez, was limited to coming to Panama because he was "a financial structurer." "These people have not been linked, they have not received money, they are not in the financial traceability," he explained.  pointing out "a series of errors and inconsistencies in the tax hearing." He said his client only provided an insurance broker service through his company Prevenza.

Former judge Aníbal Salas Céspedes, the defender of Juan Antonio Niño, was the next to take the stand stating that "they have identified a series of assertions that are not true." According to the prosecution's theory, Niño is linked to the case because Active Capital Holdings, a company he presides over, would have made transfers to Sherkson, a company from which the Odebrecht Structured Operations Department transferred millions of dollars for the payment of bribes. Active made a transfer of $488,457 to Sherkston. And another deposit for $1,229,538, from his Multibank account, to a financial institution with strong ties to Odebrecht: Meinl Bank.

Salas Céspedes assured that they were legal transactions. Like the previous lawyer, he delved into the world of insurance and reinsurance and its complexities. He added that his client's relationship with the companies linked to Odebrecht "is normal and legal."

Honest lawyers 
Gustavo Pereira supported the defense of lawyers Juan Carlos Rosas and Rosa Mary Molino Paz, from the forensic firm Rosas & Rosas, which provided services to Odebrecht. She said they both approached customer service "honestly."

According to the prosecution, the Rosas & Rosas account at Banistmo received transfers from Odebrecht companies, from which bribes were distributed, including Constructora Internacional del Sur, Innovation Research, and Kleinfeld Services.

Pereira said that his clients did “due diligence” in their relationship with the construction company.

Fernando Morales Magallón, the lawyer for the former Minister of Housing, José Domingo Mimito Arias, recalled the elements that link his client to the process: an advertising contract between Polis América, the publicists Joao Santana and Mónica Maura, with the Democratic Change party (CD). Arias was the CD presidential candidate in the 2014 election when Ricardo Martinelli was still in power.

According to the file, Maura was contacted by André Rabello  Odebrecht Director in Panama, to manage Arias' advertising campaign. The cost: $21 million to be paid by Odebrecht.

Magallón said that when one of the contracts was signed, his representative was not a candidate.

He quoted Maura's words to the effect that his client "did not commit any crime." Maura, he assured, also said that Arias did not negotiate anything.

“In 2013, there was no way to predict that Odebrecht] was carrying out illicit activities. It was a company that had moral solvency”,

Joy Paull Torres, the defender of  Uruguayan Juan Francisco Mutio Cerdeiras, who served as legal representative of Sherkson International, also spoke.

According to the prosecution, in 2014, on behalf of Sherkson International, Mutio signed a contract with Active Capital, "in order to give a legal appearance to the transaction that was made to the Sherkson International account at PKB Privatbank."

The jurist said that nothing was done to bring his client to present an investigation in the case and that he recently found out about the hearing.

Former magistrate Jerónimo Mejía spoke in favor of Uruguayan Maya Cikurel and requested her dismissal. He argued that was a victim of the Odebrecht group.

He said that she has already been dismissed by Swiss justice for the same facts for which she has  been investigated in Panama and said that Panama does not have jurisdiction to investigate his client, because "the atypical acts that she carried out were carried out from Uruguay."

As expected, said La Prensa all the lawyers who have requested the dismissal of their clients.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/odebrecht-defense-of-50-accused-of-robbery-of-state-funds-begins-1

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Call for dismissal of case against Martinelli company

Posted 27/09/2022

On Tuesday, September 27, the twelfth  day of the Odebrecht preliminary hearing, the arguments of the defense lawyers continued with a unified theme " the prosecution has not been able to prove the crime ",  my client did not know that he was involved illicit money ” or “ the Odebrecht company enjoyed a good reputation ” reports TVN.

This is part of the strategy that seeks to dismantle the theory of the case presented by the team of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, which has defended its position by reiterating that the file is strengthened, the links of the accused were made, and they have proven the punishable act, for what they trust the call to judgment.

The lawyer Alma Cortés, defense attorney for the company Importadora Ricamar SA, requested the definitive dismissal of the company, making a brief historical review since its foundation in 1961, asserting that its activities are completely legal and generates more than 7 thousand direct jobs, acquired by Ricardo Martinelli in 1986.

She said that it strikes her that the Public Ministry did not bother to review and explain what the Law provides about what a legal person is.

Cortés pointed out that, if he were to reach the Presidency in 2024, Ricardo Martinelli would reform the terms of the prescription of crimes that cannot be left to the discretion of the courts but must be something automatic

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Odebrecht hearing ends – Judge has 30 days to rule

Judge Baloísa Marquínez

Posted 28/09/2022

The Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office asked Judge Baloísa Marquínez on Wednesday, September 28 to reject each of the incidents (of nullity, double jeopardy, prescription, lack of jurisdiction...) presented by different defense attorneys in the pleadings phase, during the preliminary hearing for the bribes paid by Odebrecht.

Prosecutor Ruth Morcillo said that there were more than 15 incidents, which have already been resolved by the court and by higher courts, for which she requested that they be dismissed.

However, she agreed to declare the double trial of the Uruguayan Maya Cikurel, sharing the opinion of her lawyer Jerónimo Mejía, insofar as these same facts and crimes were investigated in her country where the process followed was archived in 2020.

Morcillo asked the judge to reject the nullity incidents due to the alleged lack of jurisdiction to former presidents Ricardo Martinelli and Juan Carlos Varela. Both claim to be deputies of the Central American Parliament (Parlacen) and, therefore, the task of prosecuting them fell to the Supreme Court.

Morcillo, , pointed out that the judge had previously ruled on the matter.

On the principle of specialty that Martinelli claims, Morcillo recalled that "it is already an issue overcome... This court has already issued a concept", and cited three court orders and one from the Second Superior Court that supports the statement.

At 11:18 am, the judge closed the preliminary hearing and will now have up to 30 days to decide if the 49 defendants are prosecuted.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/odebrecht-hearing-ends-judge-has-30-days-to-rule

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Accused Martinelli siblings were lobbyists -defense

Eduardo Camacho Gonzales

Posted 28/09/2022

Ricardo Alberto Rica and Luis Enrique Kike Martinelli Linares did not receive bribes; They served as lobbyists Luis Eduardo Camacho González, a lawyer for the children of former President Ricardo Martinelli told Judge Baloísa Marquínez on Tuesday, September 27, the twelfth day of the Odebrecht hearing.

He said that the Panamanian government paid $2 million to a firm to represent the country in the extradition process that took place in the United States. States, between 2017 and 2018, to bring the former ruler to Panama.

Then, he stated that he does not understand why the lobbying service that Panama paid for "is good", but the one that his clients did in favor of Odebrecht "is wrong".

"We want the Martinelli brothers to be judged for having done lobbying,” he said.

The Martinelli Linares siblings are currently serving a sentence in the United States for laundering at least $28 million in bribes from Odebrecht, through the US financial system. Both confessed to a New York judge that they committed the crime following their father's orders.

In the tax hearing of the case followed by the Public Ministry of Panama, the statements of André Rabello, former head of Odebrecht in Panama, stated that from the moment that Martinelli won the election Kike and Rica approached him to offer their brokerage services and speed up payments and addenda in favor of the construction company.

Meanwhile, Alma Cortés supported Importadora Ricamar, SA, and Linda Gesto, a personal friend of Martinelli known by the pseudonym “Periquito uno” in the computer system used by Odebrecht to pay bribes.

said that the prosecution initiated the investigation without an alert from the Financial Analysis Unit (UAF), as established in the Penal Code.

The UAF was under the control of Martinelli, in the Presidency.

She stressed that the company was limited to receiving or making payments by Cambio Democrático, a group that Martinelli founded and presided over.

She  accepted that Importadora Ricamar received $2.6 million from Caribbean Holding (from Aaron Mizrachi, Martinelli's brother-in-law), but that this money was from accounts receivable from Importadora Ricamar related to the CD campaign and that they were reported to the Electoral Tribunal. Therefore, the competence to investigate these facts would be the TE.

Regarding Linda Gesto, she said there is no evidence that the money she used on her credit cards came from any illicit activity, as the protected witness Rodrigo Tacla Durán assured. Cortés alluded to a report from the prosecution in which it is revealed that Gesto, along with three other friends of Martinelli, received payments in the nature of family support through the PKB Bank, in Antigua and Barbuda.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/accused-martinelli-siblings-were-lobbyists-defense