Panama sleaze barrel continues to bubble

AS EX-PRESIDENT Ricardo Martinelli, weighs his options whether to return to Panama to face the music in over a dozen criminal investigations or,  as time runs out on his US visitor visa,  to seek political asylum elsewhere, new scandal reports are emerging.

With the prosecutor in the wiretap case calling for a 21-year jail term and multiple allegations of   illegal activity linked to  the Financial Pacific Scandal,  enrichment through the country’s National aid program (PAN) and contracts with the Italian  consortium Finmeccanica, it seemed that the bottom of the Martinelli sleaze  barrel had been reached, but yet another  “ inner circle”  deal in what appears to have been his private fiefdom has bubbled to the surface.

While Martinelli’s mouthpiece Eduardo Camacho continues  to  use the airwaves to  repeat the “political persecution” mantra, and the Martinelli- owned Panama America struggles to convince the  hard core of Democratic Change supporters  that Martinelli  will return to  clear away the nest of vipers, aiming their fangs at the man who has done so much for the country, a La Prensa investigation reveals that an electricity generation consortium, whose shareholders include Martinelli and his children, was funded with money that came from a number of companies that received lucrative state contracts.

Corporación de Energía del Istmo Ltd., received $1.1 million in checks from, a shell company linked to Cobranzas del Istmo (CDI) owner Cristóbal Salerno,  investigated for corruption surrounding a contract to collect delinquent taxes. It also received funds from Navin Bhakta, a businessman linked to the Financial Pacific and (PAN) scandals, and Gabriel Btesh, a disappeared  member of Martinelli’s inner circle.

A $200,000 “contribution” from Btesh, was made in the form of a cashier’s check from Banco Universal from an account in the name of Silver Spring, S.A.

There are allegations that Martinelli used privileged information to obtain concessions to design hydraulic developments in Veraguas.

The company was allegedly used as a conduit to allow businessmen who received lucrative contracts from the state to kickback money to Martinelli  and his children. That included Salerno, who has told authorities that he also delivered suitcases full of cash to the offices of Martinelli’s Super 99.

He said the $1.1 million in checks, given to Energia del Istmo formed in June 2014, six weeks after the election that swept Martinelli’s CD party out of power  was  “solicited as a donation, which I thought were going to be used for an election campaign,” reports La Prensa. The beneficial owners were Martinelli, his children and two close associates of the former president, Rolando Cuevas La Vera and Navin Bhakta.

Bhakta was president of Parker Electronics Panamá, a firm that received millions of dollars in government contracts through the National Assistance Program (PAN). It also received other contracts to sell equipment to Tocumen International Airport

The checks were issued by a shell company in the British Virgin Islands that was allegedly used by Salerno to hide money he received

When allegations first surfaced in 2013 that Martinelli had connections to hydroelectric projects, he called them lies. Camacho would call them “political persecution.”