Andorra judge orders blocking of accounts linked to key Odebrecht suspects

 Eight accounts with about $33.5 million linked to former officials of the Government of Panama in the period 2009-2014 have been blocked by a judge from the Principality of Andorra, a key country for the triangulation of money from box 2 of Odebrecht the one that allegedly paid bribes to high officials, businessmen, and Latin American rulers, according to what the Spanish newspaper El País reported on Thursday.

The accounts that are kept in the Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA) are linked to the former Minister of the Presidency, Demetrio Papadimitriou , with a balance of approximately $205,741, but according to the investigations, the accounts moved $13 million during 2010-2014.

El País adds that another of those mentioned, close to former president Ricardo Martinelli and for whom a call to trial was requested in the Odebrecht case that is being carried out in Panama is Roberto Brin Azcárraga, $15 million to a company name Pachira Limited.

In addition, the account with an amount of $2.2 million was frozen for José Luis Saiz Villanueva, who confessed to having acted as a figurehead for former Minister of Economy and Finance Frank de Lima 

And Olmedo Augusto Méndez Tribaldos, who accumulates $2 million in the entity of the Pyrenean principality, will not be able to repatriate either due to the judicial yoke. Méndez also appears in the investigation carried out in Panama as De Lima’s figurehead.

According to El País, like these officials, accounts have been frozen for many others related to the government of Alán García, who was president of Peru (2006-2011) and committed suicide after being arrested for the same case.

On September 28, the preliminary hearing of the Odebrecht case in Panama ended, where the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office requested a call to trial several former ministers of Martinelli’s cabinet, businessmen who functioned as figureheads and former presidents Ricardo Martinelli  and Juan Carlos Varela.