33  high profile  suspects walk free in corruption probe

  Another bunch of high profile  corruption suspects linked to the Martinelli administration has walked free

The case of the alleged multi-million embezzlement in the Tonosí  Irrigation System project was annulled without anyone being found guilty, after the rejection of the last legal recourse that was intended to maintain the current process.

The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of did not admit an appeal filed by the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, seeking to reverse a ruling that had annulled the criminal process against businessman Felipe “Pipo” Virzi and 32 others

With the September 4, ruling  the Criminal Chamber puts an end to the case of alleged embezzlement of  $30 million in the Riegos de Tonosí project.

On July 10, 2019, the Second Court declared the entire process null because, in its opinion, the Public Ministry investigated and ordered the arrest of former Minister Emilio Kieswetter and businessman Marcos Albán, when the investigation period had expired.

According to the criteria of the Second Court, the investigation should end on May 13, 2015.

However, the prosecutor Zuleyka Moore investigated him and ordered Alban’s preventive detention on May 25, 2015; while Kieswetter was investigated and detained on July 20 of the same year.

The Criminal Chamber published a notification edict on Friday, September 11. Judge Maria Eugenia Lopez was the rapporteur of the ruling that denied the appeal and was also supported by Jose Ayu Prado and Maribel Cornejo.

This is another high-profile case that is closed without perpetrators, despite the fact that crimes of corruption, embezzlement, and money laundering were being investigated and checks were allegedly distributed to members of Martinelli’s inner circle.