Panama bribes paid through offshore companies

A NEW BRIBERY scandal has been uncovered  during investigations carried out by the third anti-corruption prosecutor and the Comptroller General, revealing  that a company granted a lucrative $21.6 million contract under the government of former President Ricardo Martinelli, issued checks to three offshore companies totaling $2 million.

Between Dec. 19, 2012 and Aug. 13, 2014, Pele System, Inc. issued 39 checks to Cliverstone Advisory Ltd., First Administration Ltd., and Liberty Release Co. Corporation.

Pele System had been granted a contract  through the Panama Maritime Authority, in 2013 to provide an information system regarding vessels in the Authority’s s shipping registr reports La Prensa.

None of the three companies that received the payments are registered in Panama, according to the database of the Public Registry. Two of them had accounts at Credicorp Bank. The bank has been unable to provide the names of the final beneficiaries of these accounts, as required under banking regulations. The bank has also been named in the transfer of bribery funds by the Brazilian Oderbrecht  construction giant to Switzerland.

The Pele Systems  payments have been under investigation for about a year, and prosecutors are now calling them bribes. The contract with Pele System was cancelled in 2015.