Panama asks US  to return $28 million laundered by Martinelli sons

The of the Attorney General’s office has contacted the US Department of Justice, “as a victim of crime,” to seek restitution of the money that the Martinelli brothers laundered. 

The two sons of former President Ricardo Martinelli confessed to having participated in a scheme to launder $28 million in bribes that the construction company Odebrecht paid for the benefit of a former “senior official of the Panamanian government.”

According to a statement from the Attorney General’s Office, this request is made in its capacity as the central authority of the Republic of Panama for the United Nations Convention against Corruption ”and in compliance with its constitutional obligation to defend the interests of the Panamanian State.

In the Panama application, the restitution of the funds from the crimes or any sum equivalent to the goods or the proceeds of the crime that have been or in the future are committed is requested, as a result of the criminal process followed in the United States to the Martinelli Linares brothers and “others”.

Luis Enrique, Martinelli Linares 39, and Ricardo Alberto, 42, pleaded guilty on December 2 and 14, 2021, respectively, to the charge of conspiracy to launder money.

The Attorney General’s Office reported that at the hearing with Federal  Judge Raymond Dearie, on Tuesday in Brooklyn, in which Ricardo Alberto’s guilty agreement was validated, the Superior Prosecutor for International Affairs, Agustín A. Almario Castillo, was present. The entity reported that it is following up on everything that happens in this case.

The reading of the sentence of Ricardo Alberto will be on May 13, 2022 and that of Luis Enrique, on the 20th of the same month.

Currently, the Martinelli Linares brothers are in the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), in the Brooklyn sector (New York), without the right to bail due to their “high risk of flight”.