Martinelli’s fugitive former secretary gets 10-year sentence

Adolfo Chichi De Obarrio, former private secretary of ex-Panama President Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014), has been sentenced to 120 months in prison.

The court, headed by Águeda Rentería, declared De Obarrio –who currently lives in Milan, Italy– criminally responsible as the author of the crime against the economic order, in the form of money laundering, in the Blue Apple case.

As an accessory penalty, the court imposed on De Obarrio the payment of $5,948,000 and 92 cents, which he must pay to the National Treasury within 24 months once the main sentence has been served.

According to the Judicial Branch, the amount is equivalent to twice the economic benefit received and duly quantified.

According to the conviction of March 10, 2023, the court declared proven that De Obarrio was the final beneficiary of large sums of money that were delivered to them -mostly in cash- which came from the crime of corruption, a product of state projects.

 The investigation of the case began in 2017 and consists of 369 volumes. The process was opened after it was revealed that state contractors bribed high-ranking officials to keep million-dollar public works contracts.