Mizrachis wife denies husband’s bribe role

EX-PRESIDENT Martinelli’s, sister, and wife of businessman Aaron Mizrachi has rushed to the defense of her husband accused of taking a bribe worth 10% of a $14.5 of a Social Security contract (CSS).

She sent a lengthy letter to La Prensa which had carried the story of the  German company SAP which paid a bribe to receive the software contract.

The SAP person who paid the bribe, has been sentenced in the US to 22 months in jail.

Prosecutors say that the bribe was paid through the company Advanced Consulting, and it represented 10 percent of the contract’s value. Prosecutors have also alleged that the software was overpriced.

More than a dozen people, including former Social Security officials, have been charged in the case.

But Analinda Martinelli, in an e-mail to La Prensa   denied that her husband did anything wrong.

Mizrchi  fled the country in Martinelli’s private jet, and is the subject of an Interpol red alert.

The e-mail, which was sent Monday, was in reaction to the story linking  Mizrachi to the case, calling him the “key” to the investigation.

“This is not the first time that La Prensa has written something that is wrong in an attempt to destroy his reputation,” Martinelli wrote. “You write lies, and if you want to do something decent and professional, you should rectify it.”

She said  that the contract in question was approved by a number of entities, including the Cabinet Council. She noted that current President Juan Carlos Varela was one of the people who signed off on it.

“This contract was approved in 2010, and you should remember who was in the Cabinet Council at that time,” she said.

She also denied that there was any link between her husband and Vicente Garcia, the former SAP official convicted in Florida of paying bribes to Panama officials.

“There is no existence of e-mails between Aaron Mizrachi and Vicente Garcia,” she said, adding that the two men met for less than 20 minutes on one occasion before the contract was finalized.

“It is a lie to say they met many times,” she added.

Also on Monday prosecutors outlined their case in more detail against Mizrachi and the others charged in the matte reports La Prensa