Spying operations conducted from Btesh tower
ILLEGAL surveillance of at least 150 people during the Ricardo Martinelli administration was carried on by a team working from a building owned by one of the ex-president’s “zero [inner] circle” who, like others involved in the plot, has fled the country.
Prosecutors have found that espionage equipment named Pegasus, acquired by the previous government, was used by a team working on the sixth floor of the Oceania Business Plaza Tower, a property owned by Gabriel Btesh, reports La Prensa.
Between September and October 2015, the assistant public prosecutor made an inspection at the Cable & Wireless company and found the internet provider (IP) address of the team, which had a contract for 10 megabytes of data, which lasted from Jan. 29, 2013 until May 14, 2014, 10 days after the election which resulted in Martinelli’s CD party losing power.
Investigations revealed that the contract was made by Megaly International Investment, S.A., whose legal representative is Ricardo Russo Seferlis reports La Prensa. Martinelli also had offices in the building.
Pegasus was purchased from Israel in July 2012 for $8 million. It went missing shortly after the presidential election.
Research indicates that the equipment, acquired by the National Security Council, was used by private individuals with the support of the former president, who is being investigated by the Supreme Court for ordering the illegal surveillance. A complaint was filed by Rolando López, the current director of the council. Among those charged are former security officials Julio Moltó, Gustavo Pérez and Alejandro Garuz.
Btesh has been missing for several months.
The equipment was purchased through a BVI company, Caribbean Holdings Services Ltd., whose representative in Panama was Aaron Mizrachi, the brother-in-law of Martinelli. Both men have also fled the country.
In an intensive investigation by prosecutors details have emerged of a smokescreen of triangulated banking transactions, including kickbacks and illegal payments via numerous countries including Germany.
And the names of some familiar inner circle players already mired in other scandals have emerged, like former vice-president Felipe Virzi and Ricardo Calvo . Virzi in this case is linked to a $1million cashier’s check from Banco Univeral that he once controlled. He is also linked to money laundering.
Others are part of a tangled web of insider deals under separate investigations involving multi-million dollar kickbacks and giant overpriced,and often unfinished, construction contracts, money laundering, theft and the full corruption gamut.
The thousands of pages of evidence amassed by an overworked team of anti-corruption and organized crime prosecutors, make the combined volumes of War and Peace and the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire seem like a short read in a doctor’s waiting room.
In addition to Pegasus, Martinelli’s government bought from Israel, spying equipment for $13.4 million, through the defunct National Assistance Program and also hired Italian Hacking Team. The equipment has disappeared, along with two former operators. former Security Directors A Garuz (related by marriage to Martinelli) and Perez will face trial April 11. They have both been in preventive detention since January 2015.
The targets of the spying activities were opposition politicians, judges, journalists, lawyers and businessmen. Offenders convicted of similar offences in Colombia faced sentences of up to 20 years.
