US exec facing jail for Panama bribery

US AUTHORITIES revealed this week that an executive of a multinational admitted that between 2009 and 2013 Panamanian officials were bribed to obtain lucrative government contracts during the Martinelli administration.

 On Wednesday August 12, the FBI and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a federal agency that oversees the stock markets in the US, revealed that an executive of SAP International a software designer, pleaded guilty to bribing Panamanian officials between 2009 and 2013 to obtain government contracts
The vice president of global strategic accounts Eduardo Vicente Garcia, who, according to the SEC worked in the company from February 2008 until April 2014 confessed to the crime, detailing the payment scheme both in percentages and in specific amounts of money
US officials spoke of four contracts to the Government of Panama. One of them went to the Social Security Fund of Panama (CSS). Others are unknown for now.
In the fall of 2010, Garcia sold to a local partner of SAP a computer program, with an 82% discount, which was then installed in the Social Security Fund (CSS). The SEC report states that “these discounts were needed to cover bribes to officials”.
In the official reports of the security agencies of the United States the identities of the officials are not required. The SEC indicates, however, that it has proof of payment to one of them and evidence of two others promised money. They have proof of payment to “a senior official, whose task was to improve the technological solutions to various agencies of the Government of Panama and had much influence on the purchasing decisions of software.”
Internal emails from the former SAP manger talk of about  a $145,000 bribe
Social Security spokesman Jose Miguel Guerra confirmed that the entity has  a $14.5 million contract with SAP awarded in the past administration. The contract was signed by the then director of the CSS Guillermo Sáez-Llorens, and endorsed by then-comptroller Gioconda Torres de Bianchini.
The officialsaid that the CSS will not investigate this case because this proceeding is for prosecutors. But it is providing all the informatione “to advance the processes.” 
Speaking on different TV channels Sáez-Llorens said that the tender for the program was transparent and had the approval of the Authority of Government Innovation (AIG) headed by.Eduardo Jaen, who on August 7, was arrested for alleged irregularities in a contract signed in March 2014, two months before the general election for software to encrypt messages in the cell phones of several institutions. It was reportedly never delivered.
Panama may ask the United States the names of the Panamanian officials involved in the CSS deal reports La Prensa.
Garcia will be sentenced December 16.