OFF THE CUFF: Panamas Corruption Carousel
INFAMOUS –The former private secretary of ex- President Ricardo Martinelli, has described reports of a protected witness that he was the collector and distributor of bribes linked to the National Assistance Program (PAN) as infamy.
High rollerAdolfo De Chichi Obarrio at 28 joined Martinelli in the Presidential Palace, and a few monhts laer moved from a modest home in Bella Vista to a luxury apartment and loaded his Facebook with pictures of his lavish $100,000 wedding at the Trump Tower, complete with a 7 story cake, fireworks and wedding photos at the presidential palace
Obarrio says the accusations, could be motivated by jealousy of his post and his closeness to Martinelli. He told La Prensa that time will show the accusation has no merit.
COOKED EVIDENCE– The former directors of Financial Pacific, Ivan Valdes and Clare West used inaccurate auditing data to accuse employee Mayte Pellegrini of embezzlement of $12 million says independent accountant Nereida Marquez in a statement drafted for the Fourteenth Circuit Prosecutor. Pellegrini who has testified that former president Ricardo Martinelli had a secret account at the brokerage, used to manipulate shares of Petaquilla Gold, and that she was asked to change her statement by Attorney General Jose Ayu Prado, later appointed aa Supreme Court judge by Martinelli.
BOMBASTIC INDEED-The First and Second Anticorruption prosecutors have seized a yacht moored at Flamenco island on Panama’s causeway linked to the former director of the National Assistance Program Rafael Guardia, who remains in a cell at the Directorate of Judicial Investigation. The yacht is identified as “Boombastic” and belongs to society Brescia Tre, SA, chaired by Javier Cachafeiro, former official of the National Mortgage Bank.
