Ex-president seeking $5.5 million from La Prensa

Former Panama president Ernesto (El Toro) Perez Balladares is suing  the civil Corporation La Prensa SA for $5.5 million damages. 

The Fifteenth Civil Court has accepted the application.

La Prensa carried the news as its lead story on Monday, March 26, and said  the ex-president  claims news stories published by the paper on money laundering investigations of the Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime in 2009 – “intentionally attributed nonexistent crimes in order to discredit and cause material damage."

“Despite his claim that the former refers to a smear campaign against him (which began in August 2009 with the publication of documents showing funds realized from gambling licensees granted during his administration), the story was  limited to only two publications, on March 21 and 22, 2011.”

The document filed by his lawyers included a request "urgent and special” to proceed with the action."The lawsuit was admitted on March 22, 2012.

The editions of La Prensa  March on March 21 and 22 last year said that the ex-president  "could be subject to a second criminal investigation" for money laundering for "alleged irregularities in a bank account in the Bahamas."

The information, according to La Prensa, came from the Attorney General. The prosecutor Marcelino Aguilar considered starting another process after tracing  checks of Banistmo Seaside Foundation International (Bahamas) signed by  Dora Perez Balladares, wife of the ex-president , for society Shelf Holding, consider starting another process.

According to the Public Ministry Shelf Holdings, a company " which handled more than $20 million," the president not only had signature authority but its board consisted of  his secretary Eyda Chacon and two others who worked for him.

According to official sources, reported La Prensa, the Bahamas account against which checks were issued recorded more than $176 million between 2009 and 2010. Before publishing  the two editions, the newspaper contacted the defense team of the ex-presidennt and published his version, said La Prensa.