Ex-presidents head list of stalled corruption cases
Eduardo Ulloa Panama’s Attorney General has shuffled the deck of his top level criminal prosecutors leaving some observers concerned that some prominent suspects in high profile corruption cases could walk free or with wrist slap.
Zuleyka Moore is out of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, which is investigating Odebrecht bribes totaling some $90 million. The case will be in the hands of Anilú Batista and Azucena Aizpurúa, who were assigned to by Ulloa in February
Tania Sterling and Ruth Morcillo will also continue to collaborate with the process. The rotation announced on Tuesday also has an impact on the Blue Apple case , which was handled by the prosecutor Aurelio Vásquez, who will now be in a family office.
The special prosecutor’s office and the future of corruption processes
Two prosecutors who joined the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office last February will be in charge of the Odebrecht case, considered the emblematic investigation linked to corruption in recent times.
These are Anilú Batista and Azucena Aizpurúa, who worked with Zuleyka Moore in the investigation.
Starting June 1, Moore will be the coordinator of the Panama West Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
The arrival of Batista and Aizpurúa in the case last February was one of the first movements that Ulloa made after he took office on January 2.
Batista worked as a circuit prosecutor for the Early Decision and Litigation section, while Aizpurúa was a superior prosecutor ad honorem in the Prosecutor’s Office for Superior Litigation.
In this scenario, anti-corruption prosecutors Tania Sterling and Ruth Morcillo, who are currently in charge of investigating the process, will collaborate with the mother case.
In the Public Ministry, they say that the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office “is a corporate office” and therefore the cases are seen together. “All the prosecutors who make it up have the same hierarchical level and any of those who make it up can act in each of the cases they handle, as a team of prosecutors,” they said.
The origins
The Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office is was created on January 28, 2016, days after it was announced in the United States that Odebrecht had bribed Panamanian officials and individuals to obtain huge contracts.
Kenia Porcell, who then served as Attorney General, appointed four women to that office: Zuleyka Moore, Tania Sterling, Ruth Morcillo and Vielka Broce.
Broce retired in 2019. Her cases were distributed among her former colleagues.
Now, with the rotations ordered by Ulloa, that prosecution will be made up of Batista, Aizpurúa, Sterling, and Morcillo. This team will also be in charge of another of the significant cases: Blue Apple, the investigation that was carried out by Aurelio Vásquez, who will now have the position of Superior Prosecutor, Coordinator of Investigation and Assistance to Trial in the Family Section.
The Public Ministry reported that the Special Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office will have “five other supporting prosecutors” and that there are the superior anti-corruption prosecutors, under Adecio Mojica and Leyda Sáenz.
Mojica is in charge of processes such as the National Assembly payroll and contracts, the money laundering through the defunct National Aid Program and the Savings Bank scandal
Meanwhile, Sáenz advances the case linked to alleged irregularities in the funds distributed by the Panamanian Sports Institute (Pandeportes) in the government of former President Juan Carlos Varela.
Pressures
The movements in the prosecutors’ offices were announced after lawyers, and followers of ex-president Ricardo Martinelli said that prosecutors appointed by ex AG Kenia Porcell continued to lead the corruption investigations of the Public Ministry and that this would delay the cases. against Juan Carlos Varela.
Recently, the Assembly Credentials Commission sent 10 cases against Varela and 3 against the ex-vice president Isabel De Saint Malo, to the Public Ministry.
Currently , the work of the anti-corruption prosecutors is on hold due to the pandemic. With court terms suspended and the files kept. Everything is slated to return to normal on June 8.
Odebrecht is one of the cases that must be reactivated. On March 12, the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office imposed the precautionary measure to prevent the doctor Jaime Lasso, who in the past proclaimed himself as a “lobbyist” for the company from leaving Panama.
According to the investigation, through different companies linked to Lasso, the Brazilian construction company gave at least $ 0 million to the Panameñista Party led former President Varela at the time.
But, says La Prensa, the case also reaches the “zero circle_ of Martinelli when he was president including former Minister Demetrio Jimmy Papadimitriu, who would have received at least $4 million from Odebrecht through companies linked to his parents.
Martinelli’s sons Luis Enrique and Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares are also involved , as, according to former executives of Odebrecjt , they also received millions of dollars through different companies. Neither of them has faced the process. Their whereabouts are unknown.
Ex-president’s dockets
Also on the list are the processes involving Ricardo Martinelli
Six cases were sent to the Supreme Court.
These are the investigations for alleged irregularities in the collection of taxes through Cobranzas del Istmo SA .; the complaint filed by Aurelio Camano for alleged anomalies in the sale of land in Veraguas; the complaint for granting pardons to people convicted and prosecuted for common crimes; alleged irregularities in the granting of a loan from the Savings Bank; alleged anomalies in the purchase of dehydrated food; and the complaint filed by the Superintendency of the Securities Market for the alleged use of privileged information for the purchase of shares in Petaquilla Minerals through the defunct Financial Pacific (FP). brokerage.
