Cases of cash delivered to Martinelli – Salerno

A BUSINESSMAN personally delivered suitcases stuffed with cash, every two or three months to former President Ricardo Martinelli , according to statement he made to the fourth anti-corruption prosecutor on Friday May 22.

Cristóbal Salerno, under oath, told Prosecutor Ruth Morcillo that Martinelli received benefits from Cobranzas del Istmo, S.A., and that each case contained between $400,000 and $600,000.
Martinelli, in messages on his Twitter account, rushed to deny it.
Salerno said he gave Martinelli a check for $900,000 that was made out in the name of Corporación Energía del Istmo. He also said that Martinelli regularly demanded payments, and that he delivered the money to the offices of Super 99, the supermarket chain owned by the former president.
Cobranzas del Istmo received a lucrative contract from the former government to collect back taxes on a commission basis. It collected more than $40 million, but about $22 million was from the state entity that operates Tocumen International Airport. That payment sparked an investigation into the contract.
Salerno also said he gave a check for $2.8 million to former Revenue Department Director Luis Cucalón, who awarded the company the contract. He provided a copy of the check to the prosecutor. He said that Cucalón received a total of $5.8 million from the company.
Salerno has pledged to help the government recover the $22 million paid by Tocuman S.A.
Also charged in this case are Cucalón, who is scheduled to be interviewed Monday, former Minister of Economy and Finance Frank De Lima, and Salerno’s daughter, María Alessandra Salerno, the legal representative of Cobranzas del Istmo.