The Martinelli era corruption underbelly

In a detailed recap of  the Blue Apple and FCC corruption cases plodding their way through the flawed  Panama justice system, La Prensa highlights some high rolling characters whose names constantly crop up in parallel investigations.

They  include Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares , son of former President Ricardo Martinelli, and  Mauricio Cort, lawyer,  and bribery collector, according to already implicated persons   and : Jorge El Churro Ruiz, former director of Contract Administration at the Ministry of Public Works (MOP).

Eugenio del Barrio former regional director of FCC and Julio Casla – who confessed how FCC paid bribes of millions of dollars to Panamanian officials – frequently mentioned Cort, a recommended  to FCC by former MOP boss  Federico José Suárez to FCC.

El Churro was perhaps a second-rate civil servant, but he was first-rate in the bribery business, says La Prensa. He  was the front man for Ricardo Martinelli Linares, according to the activities he himself described in another investigation carried out by the Public Ministry: Blue Apple.

In his confession to the prosecutors, El Churro said  that “at the end of 2010, I was contacted by Rica [Ricardo Alberto] Martinelli, the son of President Martinelli, and he told me in his office in Monte Oscuro about an operation of some contractors , which at that time had won bids in the Ministry of Public Works. This operation initially consisted in that I had to give a series of instructions to the contractors Rodsa, Bagatrac, Meco, GS Contractor and Conalvías, that he would give me instructions in advance, regarding where to send money, otherwise there would be difficult stuff…”.

The method consisted of pressuring companies with threats –as Cort did with FCC– until they were convinced to hand over money extracted from the State coffers, by overpricing each of their public works, addenda or any money owed. Casla, the Spanish sais : “It was an imposition [the payment of 10% of bribery] that was transmitted to us, and that, if we did not access it, we would not collect what was owed to us and it would make it difficult for us to process all the files, and ultimately we would not be able to work in Panama again ”.

But Ruiz was more than a collector. Soon he climbed to front man. He said that he was “called by ‘Rica’ Martinelli […] to open a bank account abroad to receive the money that the contractors Rodsa, Bagatrac, Meco, GS Contractor and Conalvías would send, and after giving me instructions on what to do with said money, I want to comment that at that time I opened two accounts abroad, with Panamanian companies, created at my request by the law firm of. Mauricio Cort, one of them is HB Engineering, Corp. and the other Treasure Island and Development, SA The accounts were opened in Switzerland, at the Mizrachi Bank [sic] ”.

On July 2, the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Corruption and Organized Crime of the National Court of Spain requested help from Panama on the accounts managed by Cort in the bank mentioned by El Churro Ruiz: the Mizrahi Bank, with branches in Panama and Switzerland.

In these accounts, Cort received –between 2011 and 2014– $70.9 million, the majority from FCC: $65.4 million, and another $5.5 million from Telvent Traffic and Transport, a company that in 2007 was hired to install 210 smart traffic lights, for, at least, $22.3 million. The project was a failure.

The Spanish Judicial Police discovered that, of 18 transfers made between 2012 and 2015 in the Mizrahi Bank, “there are 11 related to the family of the former president of Panama Ricardo Martinelli and to relevant politicians of his administration, such as Federico Suárez, Minister of Public Works, Jorge Ruiz, Director of Contracts at the MOP, Guillermo Saez Llorens, Director of the Social Security Fund ”.

He also noted a direct relationship between Cort and the accounts of the companies HB Engineering, Corp. and Treasure Island and Development. On paper, the final beneficiary of these companies was El Churro .

Ruiz confessed that “that company I had it set up on the instructions of Ricardo Martinelli Linares, to receive payments from some contractors, payments that he would tell me who to ask and how much to ask, and then follow his instructions on what to do with those payments or funds. I want to emphasize that Mr. Ricardo Martinelli Linares told me to open an account in Switzerland and I opened two accounts with two different companies, but with the same function, these companies are HB Engineering and Treasure Island ”.

“I instructed the contractors Rodsa, Bagatrac, Meco, GS Contractor and Conalvías to send ‘X’ amount to the accounts that he [‘Rica’ Martinelli] sent me to open …” , Ruiz stressed. between 2011 and 2012, El Churro counted more than $12 million for these companies. He even had notes on transactions for millions of dollars other than these companies, but ordered by Martinelli Linares.

Cort’s role
Another protagonist of these investigations is the lawyer Cort. And although he is not one of those accused in Blue Apple, his name repeats  on bank accounts and companies linked to the scandal. Cort was also a key player in the laundering of assets from Odebrecht’s Box 2, for which he was convicted. Thelawyer is the link  that unites three of the biggest corruption scandals in Panamanian history.

Eugenio del Barrio, , explained that, regarding the works with the MOP, his interlocutor was Cort, “although we held meetings with [the minister] Suárez and Cort, and later with Cort and Jorge Ruiz, “.

Cort’s mercantile structure was the vehicle for laundering the money that his clients received “The commissions were demanded by Cort, who always said that they were due to requests from Minister Suárez, in works of the MOP, and they were demanded with each payment that the MOP made us and, thus, the moment we received a payment, there was a siege. Cort continued so that we could pay him the amount of the commission corresponding to that payment … ”, explained del Barrio.