18 probed in stock and laundering scam
The investigation of 18 people linked to money laundering and stock market manipulation all with close ties to ex-president Ricardo Martinelli has been ordered by The Seventh Anti-Corruption Prosecutor.
They face charges of the alleged use of insider information in the Financial Pacific brokerage (FP) during the last government.
The prosecutor’s list of former high rollers includes the brokerage founders, West Valdés and Iván Clare; the former president of the Board of Directors of the Caja de Ahorra Savings Bank (CA), Riccardo Francolini; attorneys Ramses Owens and Joel Watson; former Panama VicePresident Felipe Pipo Virzi; Aaron Mizrachi, brother-in-law of Ricardo Martinelli, and Cristóbal Salerno, of de Cobranzas del Istmo, S.A. (CISA) that in the last government had the exclusive contract to collect the morose portfolio of the State- and his daughter María Alejandra Salerno Gómez.
The prosecutoralso ordered the investigation of Ori Sasson Zbeda Levy, Mariel Rodríguez Espino, Carlo Javier Osorio Wald, Josue Absalón Chávez, Margie Ángel Cohen, Ramón Carretero Napolitano, Valentín Martínez Vásquez, Solomon Jack Btesh and Harry Nessim.
All are investigated for crime against the economic order, in the form of money laundering.
In 2015, the Superintendency of the Securities Market (SMV) warned the Public Ministry about “Serious behavior that threatened the national economy”. The SMV reported that the High Spirit and Jal Offshore companies, both with FP accounts, received funds of unknown origin, and the money was used to buy Petaquilla Minerals and Inmet Mining shares.
The accounts, said the SMV, would be linked to Martinelli and warned the Public Prosecutor about “serious behavior that threatened the national economy.”
The case was paralyzed, waiting for the prosecution to receive the information requested from Canada, that would reveal who and how they would have benefited from the use of inside information to acquire shares of the company.
Register now for FREE Newsroom email updates
