$155 million scam trial again suspended

THE DELAYED hearing of 33 people, including a former vice president and two cabinet ministers charged with irregularities in the $155 million contract for a failed irrigation system in Tonosí, began in Panama’s 14th Criminal Court on Monday July 18, but was  suspended for the second time.

It is scheduled to resume in  November

It was suspended because Felipe Alejandro “Pipo” Virzi, one of the 33 accused in this process-, acquired electoral criminal immunity last week.
The hearing was suspended June 6 because several defendants in the case were not notified. The court reported that all the defendants were properly notified of Mpnday’s hearing.

Third Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Zuleyka Moore summoned the defendants, including former Vice President and member of the Inner Circle of former president Ricardo Martinelli,Felipe Virzi; former Ministers of Agricultural Development Emilio Kieswetter and Óscar Osorio; former CD deputy candidate Porfirio Ellis; businessman Ricardo “Ricky” Calvo; lawyer Ovin Julio Miller, and the directors of the Ecuadorean construction company company Hidalgo & Hidalgo Marco Alban Crespo and Víctor Ríos, among others.
“We are prepared to demonstrate that the prosecutor lies,” said Ellis on his arrival at the court.
Virzi, who received $10 million from the contract, said the amount corresponded to his fees as an advisor.
Later, he admitted to the prosecutor that he passed that money to Calvo, his business partner. Calvo is a fugitive and has never appeared personally. He is alleged to have distributed the $10 million to government insiders and their business associates.
The charges against the defendants are for crimes against public administration.
The Hidalgo & Hidalgo managers were caught trying to flee the country.
H&H received disbursements from the state totaling $37.4 million between 2012 and 2014, but , little work was ever done on the project. An audit of the Comptroller calculated the damage to the state at $31 million. So far, prosecutors have seized $29 million.
The $10 million was allegedly distributed to members of the Martinelli Inner circle, some of whom have fled Panama and are now fugitives.

Virzi, who was previously in preventive detention, was moved to house arrest because of his age, but has since been charged with another offence committed while he was at home.