More PAN scandal arrests, Obarrios name resurfaces

More PAN scandal arrests, Obarrio’s name resurfaces
DESPITE protestations of “no involvement” on the ever expanding National Assistance Program (PAN) scandal. the name of Adolfo Chichi De Obarrio The former private secretary of former President Ricardo Martinelli, continues to crop up in investigations.
His name was mentioned by the former director of PAN Giacomo Tamburrelli, in his preliminary statement on MondayDecember 14 accused of embezzlement in the $45 million contract to buy dehydrated food from Lerkshore International Limited, SA, whose president, Ruben De Ycaza food has become the third person to be detained under arrest since the scandal broke. He, like Tamburrelli is under house arrest. Tamburrelli, who has been cooperating with corruption prosecutors and naming names, has asked for State protection, and may turn out to be the smoking gun that could uncover involvement of figures further up the political ladder.
Tamburrelli has also stated that Ricardo Martinelli “ordered” the signing of the dehydrated food contract.
A month ago, a witness publicly stated that “in the PAN everything was always handled with an atmosphere of fear, threats and terror by Chichi De Obarrio” and that the most favored companies were those of Juan Carlos Marciaga, who is identified as a partner of De Obarrio.
On Wednesday Edna Ramos, counsel for De Obarrio, met with Martinelli and attorney Alejandro Pérez, and former presidency spokesman, Eduardo Camacho, in a meeting described as “casual”. http://newsroompanama.com/news/panama/off-the-cuff-martinelli-strategy-meeting-in-public-cafeteria
The Second Anti-Corruption Prosecutor on Wednesday seized an apartment belonging to De Ycaza, in the Harmony building in San Francisco He is charged with fraud.
 As the scandal widens, more names with close connections to the ex-president pop up. On Wednesday José Rodríguez González, personal pilot of businessman Gabriel Gaby Btesh, conspicuous member of Martinelli’s “zero circle” was supposed to appear for questioning
The pilot, president of Cabin Corp., which had a turnover in the past five years of $3.9 million was a no show , and in the afternoon provided an excuse, reports La Prensa.
 The company is being investigated for alleged cost overruns on charter flights arranged by the PAN under the management of Rafael Guardia, now under suicide watch in La Gran Joya Prison

The First Anticorruption Prosecutor on Wednesday businesswoman Mara Del Carmen Vergara for embezzlement in the purchase of more than 1.5 million in rice, lentils and beans for inaccessible
Vergara spent the night in the Directorate of Judicial Investigation (DIJ). For this case, are also arrested Manuel Ríos Navarro Correa and Moses Paz have also been arrested in connection with the case.

According to the complaint, Guardia bought quintals of rice to $80, when its price inFebruary was $49 per quintal. He also bought the 100-pound bags of lentils at $ 10, when the market price was $55, and quintals of beans at $100, when the price was only $76.