Martinelli son’s Madrid apartment seized
AN APARTMENT valued at over $3 million dollars in an exclusive Madrid neighborhood and belonging to one of the sons of ex-president Ricardo Martinelli, has been seized as part of the probe into bribes paid by the Odebrecht construction company to high rolling, politically connected Panama insiders.
The apartment is in the El Retiro district, home to wealthy foreign investors and near Retiro Park, and the famed Cibeles Fountain.
It is the third seizure of Martinelli property in recent, raising hopes that there are cracks in the wall of impunity surrounding the family.
All the seizures have been in countries other than the US, where the ex-president and his sons have taken refuge.
A helicopter was captured in Mexico, and Swiss authorities froze a bank account containing $22 million.
An Interpol red alert is in place for the sons, and a Panama request for the extradition of the father, who faces over a dozen criminal investigations, is mired in the US bureaucracy.
Rolando Rodríguez Cedeño, the general secretary of the Attorney General’s Office, said on TVN that the Madrid property is in the name of Desarrollo Inmobiliario Ibérico, S.A. It is 393 square meters and is located in Calle Ruiz de Alarcón.
He said that they also seized a bank account, but did not specify how much was in it.
Evelyn Vargas Reynaga, who served as a lawyer for the Martinellis and who is linked to the case, told the Special AntiCorruption Prosecutor that she formed the company at the request of Ricardo Martinelli Linares to acquire the property, and said that she served as president of the board of directors of the company, so she had to travel to Madrid to sign the purchase contract.
“I did some paperwork at the Spanish Embassy, because Ricardo Martinelli Linares and his partner, Marco Giovanelli, were making the purchase of the apartment in Spain,” she said on March 6 at an anti-corruption investigation, after being arrested in Mexico, and brought back to Panama.
