From modest rented home to multi-million dollar mansion
A MAN living in a modest rented home in Bethania acquired land costing $595,000 and built a $2.5 million dollar mansion, after receiving National Assistance Program (PAN) contracts worth scores of millions, allegedly on orders from former president Ricardo Martinelli.
The mansion has been seized and he is now under house arrest while under investigation for fraud and embezzlement.
A few days before the 2014 elections, when questions over allegations of corruption in PAN were multiplying, Ruben De Ycaza, like many other leading lights caught up in the scandal was flaunting his wealth says a La Prensa investigation team.
He was arranging a mortgage with Balboa Bank and Trust for a $2.5 million residence in Dos Mares after buying the site for $595,000 paid in full between 2010 and 2011.
He could afford it after selling $60 million of dehydrated food to the government.
De Ycaza sold to PAN through Lerkshore International Limited with two contracts He received advances of $18.6 million in the months of June and December 2010.
In August 2010, De Ycaza bought the first land in Dos Mares to build his mansion, for $320,000, then, in January 2011, bought the second plot for $ 275,000 for a total of $595,000, reports La Prensa.
in August 2011 , De Ycaza also bought shares of Trasatlantico Bank
That same month, De Ycaza purchased a residence in Miami, whose cost is unknown.
In August 2012, De Ycaza sold the Bank shares he had bought a year earlier to Balboa Bank & Trust.
A source close to the Superintendency of Banks revealed that the company approved the sale of Banco Trasatlántico to Balboa Bank & Trust with the only condition that De Ycaza who was a minority shareholder in Trasatlántic, not have any shareholding in Balboa Bank.
RED FLAGS
The decision came when the Superintendency was performing due diligence and it was found that “the only source of income that De Ycaza had was the PAN contract, generating alerts “.
“The profile of the entrepreneur raised red flags to the Superintendency,” the source told La Prensa.
A source linked to the negotiation of the PAN dehydrated food contract said he was surprised by the loan of $ 2.5 million granted by Balboa Bank & Trust, because the construction of the mansion began before 2014, the year in which De Ycaza requested the loan.
“Housing construction began six months after the first payment of PAN [in June 2010]. There were delays in the construction of the building, due to “the constant changes in the plans of the house,” noted the source.
People who know the history of the merchant were surprised at the opulence flaunted by De Ycaza, who before the contracts with PAN lived in a modest rented house in Camino Real de Betania.
The Attorney General Kenia Porcell confirmed Monday. April 13 that the mansion was seized by the Second Anticorruption Prosecutor, investigating whether there were irregularities in the direct recruitment of Lerkshore International for $44.9 million, for the sale of dehydrated food to PAN.
The Attorney General revealed that, so far $22 million in cash and bank accounts of different people linked to investigations for embezzlement in PAN, have been seized.
The Second Anticorruption Prosecutor will size $4 million in accounts at Tower Bank and Balboa Bank & Trust.
Like former PAN director, Rafael Guardia, De Ycaza liked to use out of Panama banks. His selection was Martinique. The information was confirmed by De Ycaza’s lawyer Rolando Rodríguez Chong.
Then Comptroller Gioconda Torres de Bianchini authorized an international transfer on behalf of Lerkshore International Limited for $ 5.6 million in December 2010, by way of payment for the for $44.9 million contract which followed an earlier advance of $3 million.
The transfer approved by the Comptroller, passed through Citibank in New York.
In April 2010, the board of PAN signed a resolution to hire Lerkshore International for $15 million for the purchase of dehydrated food for public schools of the districts with the highest poverty index. It would also receive $200,00 for logistics and distribution.
Before the contract was signed, PAN was distributing food in schools, and the first reports were not encouraging: the children who ingested the food had poisoning symptoms with vomiting, diarrhea and allergies.
But despite this, in December 2010 another contract between the then director of PAN, Giacomo Tamburrelli and De Ycaza was signed for $44.9 million.
The directors of PAN, all under investigation, were: Minister of the Presidency, Demetrio Papadimitriu; Education Minister, Lucy Molinar; Public Works Minister , Federico Suarez; and former director of PAN Giacomo Tamburrelli. The anti-corruption prosecutor is also investigating the deputy ministers of Social Development Marta Susana Varela and the Presidency, Maria Fabrega.
