Money laundering cloud haunts Martinelli

A cloud that has been hovering on Ricardo Martinelli’s horizon for several years has moved ed closer as The First Criminal Court requested the First Primary Care Prosecutor’s Office to investigate  possible  money laundering, based on statements made by the former Supervisory Supervisor of the Securities Market Superintendency (SMV) Ignacio Nacho Fábrega, on the use of privileged information in the defunct brokerage  Financial Pacific (FP).

An edict posted  Thursday, May 9 at the headquarters of the First Criminal Court, s announced  the call to the prosecutor’s office to investigate the alleged laundering.

During the trial held in August 2015 in which he was finally sentenced to 60 months in prison for corruption of a public official, Fabrega confessed to having given information about the actions of the SMV to FP, following by instructions -according to him- of then president    Martinelli and close ally  Salomón Salo Shamah,  Tourism Administrator.

Fábrega also stated that on one occasion he went to the Presidency of the Republic to personally deliver to Martinelli a certificate from the SMV in which he made sure that the former president governor was not related to the High Spirit account, the same one that was used by FP to buy shares of Petaquilla Gold and manipulate the Canadian stock market, reports La Prensa..

In September 2017, Judge  Hernán De León – acting as a prosecutor – traveled to Canada to submit a request for judicial assistance, after the SMV certified copies of the administrative investigation followed by the purchase and sale of Petaquilla Gold shares. De León investigated the role of Martinelli, who was then a deputy of Parlacen.

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