Intermediaries detail bribes transfer to ministers

THREE “Intermediaries have revealed how they funnelled bribery money from the Odebrecht construction company to two key cabinet ministers in the Ricardo Martinelli administration.

José Luis Saiz Villanueva, Olmedo Méndez Tribaldos and Jorge Espino Méndez  confessed to the  Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor that  through societies and accounts in which they appeared as signatories – the ex-Ministers Frank De Lima (Economy and Finance) and Jaime Ford Castro (Public Works) would have received money from the so-called “Box 2” (The Odebrecht bribery department).

They told how they were contacted by the former ministers and how they agreed to receive payments through companies whose accounts they opened in the Banca Privada de Andorra (BPA).

Méndez Tribaldos and Espino Méndez have penalty agreements, validated by the twelfth criminal judge, Óscar Carrasquilla. Espino Méndez confessed to following instructions from Ford, while Méndez Tribaldos and Saiz Villanueva claimed to have received money that was destined for De Lima.

Saiz Villanueva said  that between 2012 and 2013 he accepted a request from the then finance minister to receive the payments, although the final recipient was the ex-minister himself. He told him that André Rabello – Odebrecht superintendent in Panama- would contact him to give instructions.

Rabello received him at the Odebrecht office in Punta Pacifica, where he signed the opening of an account in the name of Herzone Overseas Limited.

“Rabello himself indicated to me that he would give instructions for the creation of the company and the account where it was going to be paid, “he said, for which he gave Rabello a copy of his ID and gave him his personal information. He then traveled to the principality for a meeting with members of the BPA who had requested to know him personally to open the account.

Saiz Villanueva said De Lima informed him that the payments to the account would be “in its first stage in the order of $ 2.5 million”; that later more  would be received

“After pondering this, I considered that it was not correct, and I asked both of them, Rabello and De Lima, that they will not continue with the payments, which were suspended. I understand that I was foolish to have received this payment and I left funds in the account to return them to Panama, “said. Saiz Villanueva

“I feel sorry for having accepted those payments. That’s why I avoided meeting with De Lima and with Rabello on those topics. I saw them socially, but we did not meet to talk about that theme because I avoided them, “said Saiz Villanueva.

He said he took $370,000 from the account of Herzone Overseas Limited as payment for the services that his company Tractebel Engineering -in which he worked until 2014- offered to Odebrecht.

He said that the $370,000 received for his professional services was in addition to the $2.5 million that Odebrecht deposited in the same account, for De Lima.

“I was definitely paid only for my professional services,” said Saiz  Villanueva.