Controversial judges $35 million ruling appealed

A DECISION  by one of Panama’s most controversial criminal judges, to free bank accounts containing $35 million that belong to Cobranzas del Istmo owner Cristóbal Salerno,will be  appealed.

First Criminal Court Judge Rolando Quesada Vallespi  is still, awaiting the results of a judicial inquiry into his previous decisions which has not been forthcoming although Supreme Court President Ayu Prado has made three inquiries into its whereabouts

Anti-corruption Prosecutor Tania Sterling said she will appeal the ruling once she is notified of the decision by the judge.

Quesada Vallespi released funds in a number of bank accounts linked to Salerno,  and his family. The accounts were frozen as part of the investigation into Cobranzas del Istmo, which received a controversial contract to collect delinquent taxes. Salerno was a member of the Ricardo Martinelli inner circle.

The judge argued that the majority of companies were created before the signing of the contract “so there is no way to say that they were used to hide money from the alleged offenses from the concerned contract.”

Last February, Sterling charged Salerno and Revenue Director Luis Cucalón, who signed the contract, with corruption. The allegation is that the majority of revenue collected by the company came from state entities.

Salerno  is under house arrest in his luxury  Punta Pacifica apartment,   and Cucalón is in preventive detention

During inquiries into the case a witness claimed he had delivered suitcases stuffed with cash to the then president, Ricardo Martinelli.