Martinelli got $7 million loan in 20 minutes
IT TOOK just a short elevator ride and a 20 minute conversation on the terrace for ex-president Ricardo Martinelli to get a $7 million loan from businessman and former vice president Felipe Virzi.
The money was for Martinelli to give to West Valdés and Ivan Clare, the former directors of thescandal ridden Financial Pacific brokerage where Martinelli reportedly had a secret “High Spirit” account used to manipulate shares of Petiquilla Gold on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges.
The loan information was revealed by Virzi to anti-corruption prosecutors. He said he loaned the money because the brokerage house was facing “economic problems.”
In an interrogation conducted at his residence in Punta Pacifica, Virzi revealed that he and Martinelli agreed to the loan after a “20-minute discussion on the terrace” of his residence.
He said that he decided to make the loan because Martinelli promised to return the money and because he had done business in the past with the former president.
According to prosecutors, in one day, Martinelli gained $12.2 million for Financial Pacific (FP) to cover a financial shortfall caused by the embezzlement of millions of dollars from the firm in 2012.
In statements rendered before the first anti-corruption prosecutor, both Virzi and the entrepreneur Cristóbal Salerno revealed that Martinelli visited them the same day at their homes to ask for loans for Valdes and Clare.
Virzi and Salerno’s statements have been given as part of the investigation that Prosecutor Tania Sterling is conducting into a loan granted by the state-owned bank Caja de Ahorros to the contractor building the failed Amador convention center project.
There is evidence that money from that loan ended up in Financial Pacific accounts.
Virzì said that he and Martinelli had apartments in the same building at the time, so negotiating the loan to Financial Pacific required nothing more than the former president taking a short elevator ride.
Cases stuffed with money
Salerno is also involved in another scandal involving multi-millions of dollars through his company Cobranzas del Istmo.
He had previously testified that he delivered suitcases stuffed with money to Martinelli. The money came from late tax payments collected by his company for the government
