Court oks laundering probe of Canal board member

PANAMA’S  Supreme Court (CSJ)  ruled on August 30 that the Organized Crime Prosecutor can include  Henri Mizrachi, a member of the Board of the Panama Canal,  in its investigation of the “New Business”  case in which a cabal of Ricardo Martinelli  insiders allegedly  purchased  Editora Panamá América with public funds

The CSJ plenum, in a unanimous decision, denied an Amparo of constitutional guarantees, presented by the defense of Henri Moisés Mizrachi,  within the investigation of alleged money laundering.

Mizrachi and 18 other people are under investigation for their alleged links with anonymous societies (SA) who managed the purchase of Editora Panamá América, S.A. (Epasa) allegedly with state funds.

Among those investigated are former Vice President Felipe Pipo Virzi, Gabriel Btesh, David  Ochy, Riccardo Francolini, Ramón Carretero, Jack Btesh, Mike Btesh, Aaron Mizrachi, Nicolás Corcione, Danny Cohen and Moussa Levy.

Corcione case
The CSJ  decision is in opposition to a position taken by the Sixteenth Criminal Court concerning

Canal director Nicolás Corcione, in an investigation for alleged money laundering. related to the accounts of former  Supreme Court Judge Alejandro Moncada Luna, currently serving a five-year jail term, reports La Prensa.

In this case, Judge Enrique Pérez decided in September 2015 to send the file to the Criminal Chamber of

the Court to consider if  the case should be investigated under the SPA rules as Corcione  is a

Member of the Canal  Board; this ruling was appealed by the prosecution and has not yet been resolved.

Attorney Roberto Moreno, representing Corcione, had requested a hearing before the Chamber Criminal Court for that court to determine whether it was competent to hear the file, but desisted from the hearing after the decision of Judge Enrique Perez and from that time the case has been stagnant reports La Prensa