Two State bank corruption cases feature ex VP

IRREGULARITIES at the State savings bank. Caja de Ahorros during the government of Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014) led to two investigations with  common elements: the $10 million loan  granted to the HCP-Contratas-P & V consortium,  which  was building the Amador Convention Center  under a Tourism Authority  contract  granted  by  then director Salomón Salo Shamah,  and the involvement of former Panama vice-president  Felipe Pipo Virzi who. Like a scarlet pimpernel gone astray keeps popping up in corruption cases.

In the first case, The First Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the alleged commission of crimes against the administration, involving the board of directors,  the manager and assistant manager and  Riccardo Francolini, former bank  president and  the ex-directors of HPC-Contratas-P & VTobías Garrido, Jairzon

On November 30, 2016, prosecutor Tania Sterling asked for the prosecution of 28 people involved and

Said that Francolini was the person who took HPC-Contratas-P & V  to the bank to request the line of

credit to the bank, and, “he served as judge and party”, and also received as a signatory of the companyCorporación Desarrollo Los Andes, S.A., $500,000  from Summer Venture Inc., the first recipient of the disbursement of the line of credit under investigation.

The hearing of the case was scheduled to take place between March 27 and March 29, 2017, but was delayed by petitions presented by the defense. It was rescheduled for April 10 and  11  and was stalled again by another series of legal actions filed by lawyers of several of the accused, including a writ of habeas corpus, and two safeguards of guarantees presented by Francolini’s defense,

who was detained in El Renacer prison.  The date for the new hearing is from January  29 to February 2, 2018.

The second investigation is a consequence of the first investigation, although this file seeks to

determine if there was money laundering. The seventh anti-corruption prosecutor, Leyda Sáenz, asked for the trial of 12 people because she suspects that money from the loan to HPC-Contratas P & V was used to cover a financial gap in Financial Pacific, after embezzlement in the brokerage.

In a fiscal hearing sent to the Judicial Body on September 27, the prosecutor asked to prosecute West Valdés, Iván Clare, Óscar Rodríguez, Ori Zbeda, Carlos Osorio, Jossue Chávez, Teresa Sánchez and Mariel Rodríguez, from Financial Pacific,  along with  Felipe Virzi, José Virzi López, Alberto Ortega and Bleisy Pineda, who belonged to the now defunct Banco Universal.

According to the prosecutor, the three phases for the configuration of the crime of money laundering -placement,

diversification and integration- were fulfilled. She pointed to Felipe Virzi as the alleged perpetrator of the punishable act with the alleged provision of $7 million from an account of the former vice president of the Republic and another $5.2 million from a management check from Ilkeston Associated Inc.

“Virzi, maintaining full knowledge of the provenance of the $7, used the  banking system to place  the funds in his personal account, in the Universal Bank, later sending it to Financial Pacific who opened a new account, also in Banco Universal, and deposited  through West Valdés, the sum of $12.2 million “

A preliminary hearing date for the case has not yet been established.

Virzi was recently released from preventive detention, over another case. and is now under country arrest