Panama $60 million scam suspect denied bail
DANIEL OCHY of Transcaribe Trading (TCT), has been denied bail by the 15th Criminal Court as he is considered a flight risk.
He is in preventive detention while under investigation for alleged massive overcharging on a contract for the rehabilitation and widening of the Arraiján-La Chorrera highway and if convicted could face 8-12 years in jail.
Judge Leslie Alberto Loaiza said that “there are elements that tell us that to give freedom to Daniel Ochy … he has sufficient economic means to withdraw from the process,” according to a press release issued by the Judicial Branch.
An audit of the Comptroller General determined that the contract awarded to TCT for $161.8 million, had a surcharge of $60.5 million.
According to Loaiza, “this indicates that we are facing an alleged offense of aggravated embezzlement, for which the penal code establishes if the amount exceeds the sum of $100,000, the penalty will be 8 to 15 years in prison.”
Ochy has been detained pre-emptively since June 22.
In this case were also pre-emptive detainees of Former Ministers of Public Works Federico Pepe Suárez and Jaime Ford Castro, but the judge granted bail of $ 500,000 each.
Adecio Mojica, of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, filed an appeal, but the judge’s decision was upheld by the Second High Court
