Public Ministry asked to probe gold found in Martinelli stores

Lawyer Guillermo Cochez submitted a request to the Public Ministry after the newspaper La Prensa reported that in the offices of the private supermarket chain Super 99, owned by the Martinelli family, safes with gold, silver, money, and documents containing information related to legal proceedings.

Cochez wants to know if a crime is being committed and if there are merits to initiate a formal investigation.

The lawyer made the request on Friday, January 13, through a note addressed to the attorney general in charge, Javier Caraballo. He specifies that the content of the news signed by the journalist Rolando Rodríguez, entitled Gold, silver, and money were found in the Super 99 safes, published in the January 11, 2023 edition of La Prensa, should be investigated.

It adds that the report “also outlines that several files known to the Public Ministry and the Judicial Branch were found in said safes,” which were in the private offices of former President Ricardo Martinelli, in Super 99.

For this reason, he asked Caraballo to “initiate the rigorous procedures to determine the existence or not of any punishable conduct.”

The report by La Prensa arose after the digital outlet Foco revealed the contents of the hard drive of the computer of Adolfo Chichi de Obarrio, who was Martinelli’s private secretary.

Among the findings, according to the news, are a “folder with information related to [Jean] Fegali and his bank accounts”; a folder “of the company Gaming and Service of Panama, SA” and a folder “with information related to the company Shelf Holding, Inc.”, linked to former president Ernesto Pérez Balladares (1994-1999), who -during his government appointed and then ordered the dismissal of Martinelli as director of the Social Security Fund (CSS).