Odebrecht shadow hovers over two presidential candidates

TWO candidates in Panama’s  2019 presidential elections have been linked to the Odebrecht bribery payment scandal, but only one of them is being investigated for money laundering by the Special Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office.

The two are  José Domingo “Mimito” Arias and Rómulo Roux. “Mimito” Arias is charged with money laundering because he allegedly received an estimated $16 million from the Odebrecht  Construction Company for his presidential campaign for the presidency in 2014, when he was the standard-bearer of the Cambio Democrático  (CD)   party reports TVN.

Arias, who on October 7 was elected presidential candidate of the Alliance Party, is under a  precautionary measure preventing him from leaving the country due to the Odebrecht case.

As part of his political campaign, he says  there will be no corruption in his government ;

Rómulo Roux, the current CD candidate is allegedly linked to the Odebrecht case, for having signed a contract in 2013,  with the company of the publicist Joao Santana, to manage the political campaign of Arias. Roux signed the contract as general secretary of the CD but is temporarily free from the investigation because of an Electoral Tribunal ruling.