Triangulation plot to buy Martinelli spy equipment

FORMER Vice-president and Ricardo Martinelli insider Felipe Pipo Virzi was a key player in the acquisition of the second batch of eavesdropping equipment in the government of Ricardo Martinelli say sources close to the investigation.

A sophisticated triangulation system akin to money laundering was used to hide the purchase.
In an in depth report on Friday , July 31, La Prensa revealed that an account whose signatory is Virzi issued a check for a million dollars to Caribbean Holding Services, linked to Ronny Aaron Mizrachi , brother in law of former president Ricardo Martinelli, and who fled the country on Wednesday after learning that the scandal net was closing in.
The Universal Bank account No. 2004010100002014, is the same used for the transfer of $5 million to Virzi by the company Hidalgo & Hidalgo (H & H) that ran the failed irrigation project system in Tonosí. Coincidentally, the Third Anti-Corruption Prosecutor is investigating the possible payment of ‘bribes’ from H & H zero to several members of the circle of Martinelli, some of whom have fled Panama.
After the check issued to Caribbean Holding Services was endorsed by an account management at Allied Bank Panama, the money went to a Panamanian subsidiary bank in a Caribbean island.
From there a $100,000 management fee was paid to the Allied Bank and Caribbean Holding Services as part of another commission for a private mediator, the sources said.
After these transactions, the transfer route went to a branch of Wells Fargo in the US, and then to Bank Hapoalim in Israel. In total, they deposit $899 000 687 25/100 to NSO Group as the first payment for the sophisticated spy equipment. During the government of Martinelli they were paid about $8 million for the equipment which was intended, according to the certificate of use, for “the collection and compilation of information on mobile devices for the exclusive use of the Government of Panama”.
It consisted of an eavesdropping system called Pegasus, with a capacity to filter 150 BlackBerry and an equal number of Android cell phones but the specifications indicate that this amount could be up to five times higher reports La Prensa.
The original contract with the Government NSO Group was $6 million, but after the acquisition of new software rose to $2 million.
There is no record of any payments or funding from a State entity with NSO Group, even though the rules indicate that such devices are acquired from state to state.
The Pegasus system usage, whose last record was dated May16, 2014 has disappeared, along with the first machine spy equipment bought from Israeli MLM Protection for $13.4 million with funds from the National Assistance Program (PAN).
A formal complaint will be filed with the Public Ministry in the coming days for alleged illegal transactions to acquire Pegasus and its disappearance.
Julio Moltó was the Executive Secretary of the Security Council, in January 2011 negotiations for the purchase of this system started.