Former tax boss exits hospital to jail
THE FORMER head of the Directorate General of Revenue (DGI), Luis Cucalón, ended his two year sojourn avoiding justice in Panama’s most expensive private hospital , on Tuesday, September 12 when he was whisked away from Punta Pacifica in a Penitentiary System vehicle to the lesser comforts of the El Renacer Prison in Gamboa.
Among his neighbors in El Renacer will be other luminaries of the Ricardo Martinelli era like, former police chief Gustavo Perez and ex-Supreme Court president Alejandro Moncada Luna, both serving five-year terms, and a swathe of former high rollers getting a preliminary taste of life on the flip side of the coin while awaiting trial in corruption cases. Some of them, like Moncada Luna, have played the health card to change their environment, but without success.
They may all be wondering if the capo who held the strings will soon be joining them after his extradition from Miami, where he is housed in a Federal detention center, minus many of the privileges like TV and Twitter enjoyed by the El Renacer community.
He will be in court next week facing embezzlement charges in a case with close links to Ricardo Martinelli. and Cristobal Salerno, currently under house arrest who told prosecutors he delivered suitcases stuffed with money to the presidential palace.
