Switzerland confirms over $23 million in illegal payments to Martinelli team
WITHOUT naming names Swiss authorities have confirmed the existence of bank accounts that carried more than $20 million in illegal payments to Panamanians in the Ricardo Martinelli administration.
A document used by Switzerland’s Public Prosecutor’s Office as a basis to fine Odebrecht $2 billion to settle criminal proceedings against it reveals that “at least 32.8 million francs [were paid] from Dec. 16, 2009 to Aug. 27 2012 to the environment of a previous high member of the government of Panama.”
Swiss prosecutors estimate that, at the time, the payments amounted to about $23.7 million.
It is unknown if this money is part of the $59 million that Odebrecht admitted having paid to
Panamanian officials during that same period, which corresponds to the government of Ricardo Martinelli.
What is clear, reports La Prensa is that in the plea agreement that Odebrecht signed with the US Department of Justice on Dec. 21, the Brazilian company acknowledged that it had paid between 2009 and 2012 $6 million “to two close relatives of a highlevel official of the Panamanian government in relation to projects of governmental infrastructure.”
Odebrecht officials have identified these individuals as the sons of the former president, Ricardo Martinelli.
Martinelli, who is living in self imposed exile in Florida, after fleeing the country two years ago has denied the allegations.
