At least $808,888 in lawmakers’ scam

Over 300 checks totaling at least $808.888 dollars were cashed in the National Bank of Panama (BNP), from payrolls of the National Assembly ( AN).while 35 people who appear as beneficiaries of the checks declared that they did not sign or receive the money.

Sources linked to the case revealed to La Prensa that public prosecutors detected 29 differences between the signatures on the checks and those registered on the identity cards of people interviewed.

The investigation originated from a complaint lodged by the comptroller Federico Humbert for the alleged irregular collection of checks from the returns of the Assembly by a BNP cashier who changed 318 payroll checks for $ 08 888, from alleged payments to personnel included in the payroll of deputies.

After the statements of the interviewees and the irregular findings in the signatures, the prosecution requested experts from the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (Imelcf) to review the documents and certify the irregularities found so far.

T he process is still being investigated by the prosecutor’s office, which to collect collects evidence to present before a judge of guarantees, to charge so that the latter charges the possible perpetrators of

The lawyer Carlos Muñoz Pope, advisor of the comptroller, and who accompanied him to the headquarters of the Attorney General’s Office on the day he filed the complaint, then said that the corruption scheme implied that the same cashier changed every three months, or less, 20 checks of the payroll of the deputies.