Panama-Brazil spat over Odebrecht probe

PANAMA’S   long delayed reaction to Brazil’s request for aid in investigating bank  accounts linked to a bribery investigation involving Odebrecht has led to a war of words and conflicting statements  between law officials of the two countries.

Brazil’s  Attorney General denied Thursday, September 29   that any apologies were made to representatives of the Public Ministry of Panama who traveled to Brazil  this but who were not received.

“Contrary to what was reported by the press office of the Public Ministry of Panama, there were no apologies made for not having meetings,” the Brazilian Ministry of Justice said.

Panama officials had earlier reported that Ministry of Justice official Isalino Giacomet had apologized for having to cancel planned meetings over the Lava Jato case.

Panama had sent a three-person delegation to Brazil to discuss a request for judicial assistance submitted 18 months ago, which Panama has yet to fulfill, in connection with the Lava Jato corruption investigation.

Planned meeting?
Panama prosecutors said there was a planned meeting with Lava Jato prosecutors in Curitiba, but Brazilian officials have denied any meeting was planned and said  that they were not given any notice that the team was traveling to the country.

In its statement, Brazilian officials reiterated “the need for a speedy solution to obtain answers” to the request submitted 18 months ago on bank accounts of companies linked to Constructora Norberto Odebrecht, S.A., the construction company at the center of the Lava Jato scandal.

Panama has claimed that the request was too vague, while Brazilian officials have responded by leaking the actual request, which appears to contain a request for specific information about bank accounts in Panama.

Panama dispatched a delegation to Brazil this week, and on Tuesday they met with officials from the Ministry of Justice. But a meeting planned for Thursday in the city where the investigation is taking place never took place.

Panama officials say it was cancelled, but Brazilian authorities said it was never scheduled. They also said the initial meeting on Tuesday was not previously planned.

“While the meeting was not previously scheduled, the Panamanian authorities were immediately received by Brazilian authorities,” said an official statement from Brazil about the meeting.

On the content of the meetings, Brazilian officials are clear that they have requested specific information about bank accounts in Panama, and denied Panama’s position that the request was too vague.

It said the request “does not differ from other requests s which were honored by other countries.”

It also called on Panama to respect international conventions that govern requests for judicial assistance and  noted that prosecutors from Brazil have traveled twice to Panama – in 2015 and 2016 – to discuss the case, but these meetings did not result in any progress.