Ex- Panama VP behind bars

LESS THAN 24 hours after his brother walked out of the office of Seventh Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, Alexandra Vence,  Felipe Pipo Virzi left manacled, on Thursday, Aug. 17,  on his way to pre-trial detention.

Former vice-president Pipo Virzi is under investigation for money laundering and his name is linked to a group of former high rollers who were part of ex-president Ricardo Martinelli’s inner circle.

Virzi arrived at the prosecutor’s office to explain why a loan from the Caja de Ahorros Savings Bank in favor of the Consortium HPC-Contratas-P & V, went to the extinct brokerage Financial Pacific (FP).

Accompanied by his lawyer  Alfredo Vallarino Alemán,  Virzi who is the subject of other corruption investigations, arrived smiling, but in silence.

The lawyer said that on the way out they would offer statements to reporters, but the opportunity never arose.

The day before, Virzi’s brother José, Former legal representative of the defunct Universal Bank was questioned, and at least seven others are being investigated for alleged money laundering.

The investigation came after statements made by Pipo Virzi to  The First Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, about irregularities in the $9 million loan granted by the  Caja de Ahorros to the consortium HPC-Contratas-P & V for the construction of the bankrupt convention center in Amador.

Virzi stated – in an interrogation on October 28, 2016, in his Punta Pacifica apartment  – that in the year 2012 he received in his home the then president Ricardo Martinelli, and entrepreneur Cristóbal Salerno, who is linked to Martinelli in another corruption scandal.

Martinelli asked – according to Virzi- to lend $ 7 million to the founders of Financial Pacific, Ivan Clare and West Valdes. Clare is a fugitive and Valdes is currently detained in El Renacer Prison.