New Business laundering probe gets extension
THE TIMELINE for the investigation of transactions carried out for the acquisition of the Editora Panamá América (Epasa) group, allegedly with public funds has been extended for one year – extendable for 12 months more.
The ruling came from superior Court judges Wilfredo Sáenz and Eda Cecilia Gutiérrez, On Friday, November 17, in addition, the court declared the “New Business case” complex according to the law regulating cases of organized crime.
The court ruling revokes an August 25, the order of the eighteenth criminal judge Baloisa Marquínez, who denied a request from the First Prosecutor’s Office against Organized Crime that the investigation followed 18 people be declared complex.
On June 26, Attorney General Kenia Porcell, reported that the investigations reveal that, at least, $22 million advanced to the Transcaribe Trading S.A. company, for the widening and rehabilitation of the Arraiján-La Chorrera, highway was allegedly diverted for the purchase of the Epasa group.
The first specialized prosecutor against Organized Crime, David Mendoza, appealed the Marquínez ruling last October, alleging that in the New Business case, it is clearly before a structure and an organization with countless people that separates it from any normal investigation.
In the case, the prosecution made charges for alleged money laundering against: former Vice President Felipe Pipo Virzi, Gabriel Btesh, David Ochy, Riccardo Francolini, Ramón Carretero, Jack Btesh, Aaron Mizrachi, Mike Btesh, Nicolás Corcione, Danny Cohen, Mousa Levy, Henry Moses Mizrachi; the ex-directors of the Financial Pacific brokerage West Valdés and Iván Clare,
Former employees of Financial Pacific Mayte Pellegrini, Mariel, Rodríguez and Óscar Rodríguez were also charged. as well as merchants Navin Moham Bhakta and Tse YumLing.
The investigation began last February, after a denunciation in the legislative plenary by Deputy Jorge Iván Arrocha.
