Martinelli helicopter bought by scandal plagued company

THE MARTINELLI family helicopter, returned to Panama this week, was not bought from bribes obtained from Odebrecht and moved to Swiss bank accounts said ex-president Ricardo Martinelli on Twitter.

Instead ir was paid for by a series of checks, which he posted, from a company, Langton International Holdings whose  principal Cristóbal Salerno is facing numerous corruption investigations linked to the Martinelli administration.

The checks totaled $312,500 for the purchase of the N1626L helicopter which is now in the custody of the National Aeronaval Service (Senan), after being received by the Public Ministry (MP), from Mexico.

Langton International Holdings is linked to several investigations by the MP including mbezzlement scandals, payment of bribes  and corruption, such as the alleged illegal collection of  State taxes of the State through  a collection company, Cobranzas del Istmo,, as well as the alleged payment of Bribes  to high officials of the previous government from  this money.

During testimony Salerno described taking cases stuffed with up to $600,000 to then president Martinelli.

In addition, the company  appears in the file of the Martinelli electric concessions through The Isthmus Energy Corporation, and in the process of the $ 9 million loan that the Caja De Ahorros disbursed to the consortium HPCContratas P & V.

According to Martinelli’s defense, the checks confirm that the helicopter was not paid with Odebrecht bribes.