Martinelli named in multi-million bribery probe

An investigating court of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Corruption and Organized Crime of Spain sent a document to the Central Court on July 2, in a  process against FCC, in which it makes damning revelations in the bribery case involving scores of millions of dollars and fingering high-level officials in the Ricardo Martinelli administration including the ex-president.

The document says that the Judicial Police presented an analysis of one of the accounts of Mauricio Cort, a local lawyer hired by FCC for alleged legal services. Cort was, in fact, a collector of bribes, who channeled them through a company of his – Arados del Plata – to the final recipients. These funds were provided by FCC, among other companies, after overvaluing works in Panama.

Cort justified the money received, arguing that FCC made payments for professional services. The document shows that the analysis presented by the Judicial Police deals with their accounts at Mizrahi Bank in Israel  “which, reveals that between 2011 and  2014 the accounts were nurtured by two main payers who jointly contributed $71 million to their accounts ” reports La Prensa.

Thus, FCC contributed $65.3 million, while the Spanish company Telvent Traffic and Transport added another $5.5 million. Of this total –between 2012 and 2015– these accounts made 18 transfers for a total of $43.3 million to a set of recipients, among which “there are 11 related to the family of the former president Ricardo Martinelli and politicians from his administration ”.

Among those named are  “ Federico Suárez, Minister of Public Works (MOP) Jorge Ruiz, Director of Procurement of the MOP,  and Guillermo Saiz Llorens, director of the Social Security Fund”.

“All of them presumably participated – the document indicates – in the collection of 10% of commissions from the contractors who were awarded Line 1 and 2 of the Panama Metro and the works of the City of Health”, originally known as “Hospital City”.

It adds “the sending of funds from Mauricio Cort’s accounts to the Los Andes Promoter and Development company, of which the Minister of Public Works and the Director of the Social Security Fund were also part.” The company had among its directors Ricardo Martinelli, Suárez, and Sáiz Llorens.

Of these accounts – he indicates to the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Corruption and Organized Crime of Spain – “the income in favor of Martinelli and his circle of close friends, either directly by transfer of funds or by participating in real estate and property investments, amounted to $36 million

The note indicates that “in the case of the authorities of the Ministry of Public Works, the Judicial Police identifies a direct relationship between Mauricio Cort with the accounts of the companies Treasure Island Development and HB Engineering, Corp., while the real beneficiary would be Jorge Ruiz Sánchez, who, , was responsible for the administration of MOP contracts between 2009 and 2012 – Martinelli Administration ”.

The list of relevant events continues with the sending of “funds from Mauricio Cort’s accounts to Raúl de Saint Malo, brother of the vice president of Panama in the administration of Juan Carlos Varela, The relationship of Raúl Saint Malo with the brothers Ricardo Alberto and Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares/

The note adds that it wants to confirm operations to buy boats and a helicopter by Saint Malo, and payments in favor of a company of the Martinelli brothers through which real estate was purchased in Madrid.

The Spanish authorities seek to collect information from Panama, to reveal whether funds from Cort – sent through Swiss banks and nurtured by almost 85% of the money contributed by FCC – were those used to finance real estate operations and acquisitions with members of the Martinelli family or figures from their administration who awarded the contracts with Odebrecht and FCC

The document adds that Cort’s accounts at Mizrahi Bank reveal the business relationships with real estate companies in which Cort participated with unidentified third parties. “The capital injection in these businesses appears to have come largely from Mauricio Cort, thus reproducing a typical laundering pattern.”

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