Ex-president and city mayor dodging investigation bullets

Panama  Mayor Bosco Vallarino and former president  Ernesto Balladares are both dodging investigation bullets.

Vallarino, failed to appear on Monday for a meeting withcorruption prosecutors investigating a check that was issued to his wife by the city for travel expenses for a trip she took to Taiwan.
One of his lawyers  said that  the inquiry had to be postponed because he had not had enough time to study the papers  relating to the case, which has been highlly publicized since the mayor first took office in July.
He is also in hot water for controversial contracts awarded for putting up Christmas displays without going through the bidding process.
The mayor’s woes are small potatoes compared with the allegations carried in an ongoing investigation by La Prensa  into the activities of former president Balladares, who has been in Europe for some weeks as more details of his involvement in a series of shell companies emerge.
The latest revelations give details of large checks  ending up in his personal account. Earlier in the week the paper carried diagrams showing the links between numerous companies involved in transferring money.
La Prensa says that according to bank records obtained by the publication, shell company Shelf Holding deposited funds directly into an account at Banistmo,in the name of  Ernesto Pérez Balladares. Banistmo was  later was purchased by HSBC.
"Shelf Holding received a constant stream of deposits from Lucky Games S.A., a company that was granted a lucrative gaming license from Balladares in 1996 at its account at Banistmo. But, according to bank records, some of these funds did not remain in the company’s account, but were transferred into a private account opened by Balladares."
Copes of the transfersobtained by La Prensa  show that: "on June 2, 2005, Shelf Holding issued a check for $100,000 that was endorsed and deposited a few hours later in the checking account of the ex-president. On June 9, 2006, the company issued a check for $60,000 that was deposited in the same account "
The "small time" investigation into Vallarino began when he submitted a check for $4,000 to pay his wife for expenses she incurred during  a trip,  between Sept. 5 and 15. The Comptroller’s Office refused to endorse the payment because she is not a civil servant., and  had no right to receive traveling expenses.