Martinelli insider to reveal location of $22 million nest egg

AFTER a marathon interrogation by anti-corruption prosecutors ,businessman Cristobal Salerno, linked to the collection agency Cobranzas del Istmo, agreed disclose the location of $22 million paid by the state agency Tocumen S.A., which operates Tocumen International Airport.

The sum was part of the $47 million in commissions received by the company for collecting delinquent taxes during the administration of former President Ricardo Martinelli.
Prosecutors interviewed the businessman, until 1 in the morning of Thursday May 21, before issuing an order of house arrest. The 71-year-old was taken to his apartment in the Bellagio building in Punta Pacifica where two police officers were stationed outside his door.. The judicial code prevents persons over the age of 65 from being jailed prior to a trial.
One of his neighbors is entrepreneur Felipe Virzi, one of the members of the Martinelli inner circle.
According to sources close to the investigation, Salerno said that he is willing to cooperate with the process and added that he will disclose the whereabouts of the $22 million collected from Tocumen.
Salerno was close to former president Ricardo Martinelli and shared a table with him and other insiders at a fund raising dinner for the CD presidential candidate José Domingo Arias, prior to the last election, reports La Prensa
Salerno and his daughter teamed up to sell tax printers with Gaby Gabriel Btesh, friend and partner of former businessman Felipe Pipo Virzi The printers at over $1,500 apiece were mandated for businesses by the Martinelli administration.
Local traders were forced to buy fiscal printers while the Salernos continued to increase their collections turnover.
The first half of 2014, in the dying months of Martinelli’s regime was the best of times for Salerno’s collection business. The government paid $30 million for the recovery of delinquent taxes. The figure was substantially higher than the$9 million.
For the whole of 2013.
Also charged in the investigation are former Public Revenue Department Director Luis Cucalón, who signed the contract with Cobranzas del Istmo, and former Minister of Finance Frank De Lima, who was the chairman of the board of Tocumen S.A., and Alessandra María Salerno Salerno’s daughter and the legal representative of the company.