Corruption linked bank taken over

PANAMA’S BANKING  Superintendentt  has taken over administrative and operational control of FPB Bank which occupies  seven floors of an office tower housing Odebrecht.

The decision was made “due to judicial investigations in Brazil and Panama related to the  well known Lava Jato operation involving FPB Bank, which opened bank accounts for foreign clients without the corresponding legal authorizations,” said the Superintendency

The bank, has  seven floors under the offices of Odebrecht in Tower C of the Torres de las Américas complex, and  is connected to the phase of the Lava Jato investigation that prompted a raid on the offices of Mossack Fonseca in Brazil.

That part of the investigation also prompted the filing of money laundering charges against Ramón Fonseca and Jürgen Mossack, who are being held in Panama.

Mossack Fonseca has close ties with FPB Bank.

According to Igor Romário de Paula,

coordinator of the investigation in Brazil, the bank opened offshore accounts connected

to clients of the Panamanian law firm, which made it possible to move money into those

accounts.

Those offshore companies were used by at least four suspects in the Lava Jato operation.

FPB Bank was created in Panama and has an operating license in this country, but not in Brazil, where prosecutors say they detected operations despite the fact that it is not licensed to do so.

The majority of its governing body is from Brazil.

According to Romário de Paula, the investigation into FPB Bank has brought other possible crimes to light.