Call for Odebrecht money laundering probe
SIX MONTHS after Brazilian prosecutors requested help from Panama in their investigation of construction giant Odebrecht a complaint has been laid with Attorney General Kenia Porcell to investigate the company for money laundering.
The complaint,from former comptroller Alvin Weeden is based on the findings of Brazilian federal prosecutors who have alleged that the company used the Panamanian banking system for illicit activities.
Weeden based the complaint on media reports from Brazil, in which Odebrecht is alleged to have used a complex network of shell companies in numerous jurisdictions, including Panama, to move money.
Reports have outlined a complex money laundering operation to deliver bribes to senior executives of the Brazilian state company Petrobras through Panamanian companies, Virgin Islands, Uruguay and Belize, among others, with bank accounts in Switzerland and other countries, including Panama.
Brazilian prosecutors in charge of the operation Lava Jato requested cooperation Panamanian authorities to gather information about Odebrecht and the payments made to executives of Petrobras,
through funds that were laundered in Panama.
That money, say the Brazilian prosecutors, reached accounts in Panamanian banks by the Panamanian company Constructora Internacional del Sur SA, dissolved last year.
