Martinelli ordered distribution of kickbacks – Virzi

FORMER PRESIDENT Ricardo Martinelli gave instructions on how to distribute kickbacks from the company that had a $155 million contract for a failed irrigation system in Tonosi , Los Santos, according to statements by former vice president and businessman Felipe Alejandro “Pipo” Virzi to the Third Anticorruption prosecutor Zuleyka Moore, on Wednesday June 16.

The stunning declaration, from one of Martinelli’s Zero (inner) circle will mean the file will go to the Supreme Court, joining the previous list of cases the ex-president is facing.
Virzi is under investigation for the alleged commission of crimes of money laundering, for payments received from the Ecuadorian firm Hidalgo & Hidalgo (H & H), responsible for the failed Tonosí irrigation project in the province of Los Santos.
Virzi, said that he got involved in the project through an “invitation” made by Porfirio Ellis, a strong defender of the management of Ricardo Martinelli, and a Democratic Change candidate for Deputy in previous elections.
Virzi said he went to the Presidency to speak with Martinelli “to explain my interest in the project to be carried out …. I was the company that could do it.”
He told the prosecutor he hired Luis Vargas “to negotiate on my behalf with the company Hidalgo & Hidalgo (H & H), “The most important company in Ecuador.”
The contract was signed in 2012, on behalf of the State, by then Minister of Agricultural Development, Oscar Osorio, and Marco Alban Crespo for H&H, both of whom are in preventive detention
The agreement was signed for $155 million, although there was no land for execution of the work, to help agriculture and livestock of the Azuero region.
Despite the lack of progress on the project, the company received $37.4 million between 2012 and May 2014.
Virzi, former vice president under Ernesto Perez Balladares (1994-1999), told the prosecutor that after the first payment was agreed in his contract with H & H, he started feeling pressure and discomfort.
“Immediately after the [first payment] President Ricardo Martinelli started to give me instructions of how to distribute my payment.”[Virzi received a check from H&H for $5 million on August 9, 2012.
He said that when he received instructions from Martinelli “I was bothered and I complained.”
However, he told the prosecutor, if he had not followed the instructions of Martinelli ” It could affect my Business and projects and my relations with him” [Martinelli].
Virzi referred to involvement in livestock, agriculture, real estate and tourism projects, among other businesses.
Virzi said the first check he received from H & H “I endorsed, and deposited in Summer [Venture Inc.] and Ricardo ‘Ricky’ Calvo was responsible for the distribution of money.”
He said that the second installment of H & H, was through a transfer, “the pressure to make the distribution [of money] began immediately.”
Virzi, according to research by the prosecution, received a transfer of another $ 5 million, also deposited to the account of Summer Venture Inc. in the Universal Bank, owned by his family and now under management control of the Superintendency of Banks.
He said that Calvo gave him, in writing, instructions for bank deposits that he had to sign.
Calvo, supposedly outside the country, is a partner of Virzi. “He’s like a son to me,” he told the prosecutor.
The prosecutor asked Virzi what he meant when he stated that he received instructions from President Ricardo Martinelli? Virzi said, “the instructions were that my payments, I had to divide according to instructions [Martinelli]. When the company paid me the two payments. He sent me a list of people who should receive the money I had earned from my contract. “
He added that the list was provided by Ricardo Calvo.
Virzi said: ” The President sent him the list and [sent him] with instructions to my office
In his statement, Virzi gave details of the company Summer Venture Inc., in which the money he received from H & H was deposited. He used an account of the company in the Universal Bank.
Virzi tried to disassociate himself from the society and told the prosecutor that “Summer Venture had me as a signatory, but I never gave instructions related to that account.
He said that Calvo controlled the Summer account and controlled everything about the society.
Asked by the prosecutor how the become a signatory to the account of Summer Venture Inc., he said he did it because Calvo “asked me and I signed the paper.”
Summer Venture Inc. is listed in other scandals, including then judge of the Supreme Court Alejandro Moncada Luna, for the purchase of two apartments for $ 1.7 million.
Moncada Luna was sentenced to 60 months jail for unjust enrichment and falsifying public documents.
Recently, it was learned that this company was disabled, since October 2014, by the Public Register for non payment of taxes,
The company was incorporated in the Public Registry of British Virgin Islands in 2006.

“Tax Lady, I have 71 years hard work serving my country, and have not jeopardized this t to fall into money laundering “ said Virzi and he requested a change of injunction, He has been in preventive detention since June 3.
“If with some action, of mine, to go to talk with President Martinelli, I committed a crime, I am sorry,” he said, recalling his visit to Martinelli about the irrigation project.
This week Virzi returned $5 million to the National Treasury. As evidence, Virzi he  gave the prosecutor  “Purchase Requisitions”. for August 14, 2013, July 19, 2013 and one from July 22, 2013.
In them, Virzi lists the people who received payments on Martinelli instructions, the product of his contract with H & H.
Judicial investigations reveal that part of the Martinelli Zero Circle were the beneficiaries.
THE BENEFICIARIES
Gabriel ‘Gaby’ Btesh received $360 000; the candidate for deputy of Democratic Change, Porfirio Ellis, received $319 thousand. Development promoter Los Andes, S.A. He received $500 thousand. This partnership is linked with former President Martinelli.
Abdiel Atencio, former director of National Rural Engineering and Irrigation Ministry of Agricultural Development, earned another $20,000 from Virzi.
Martinelli, Btesh and Calvo are outside the country reports 
According to constitutional provisions, fiscal Moore will refer the dossier mentioning Martinelli, a current deputy of the Central American Parliament, to be considered by the Supreme Court reports La Prensa.