Jailed banker linked to Martinelli family laundering
RICCARDO FRANCOLINI currently detained in Panama in the Caja de Ahorros case has been identified as the owner of 25 percent of the company Promotora y Desarrollo Los Andes, a company linked to allegations of money laundering in the Odebrecht investigation.
The owners of the remaining 75 percent of that company are Luis Enrique and Ricardo Martinelli Linares, the sons of former President Ricardo Martinelli.
They have been accused by Swiss officials of laundering millions of dollars through banks in Switzerland and Panama.
Family ties
Also connected to the company is attorney Evelyn Ivette Vargas Reynaga, who signed documents on behalf of Promotora y Desarrollo Los Andes. That lawyer also has close ties to the Martinelli family reports La Prensa.
Swiss prosecutors have asked Attorney General Kenia Porcell to question Ricardo Martinelli Linares, Luis Enrique Martinell, who have, like their father, fled the country.
They also requested that Panama officials “seize business documents” related to several companies linked to Ricardo Alberto and Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares, as well as information related to bank accounts opened at Credicorp Bank and Multibank.
The Martinelli Linares brothers, according to Swiss prosecutors, also appear as beneficiaries jointly or separately of bank accounts in that country, open to five other companies: Ascona Management Group Corp., Diamong Investments Corp., Livorno International Ltd. and Waterspoon International Ltd., all of British Virgin Islands; And Hofburg Capital Management Corp. of Belize.
Swiss prosecutors do not detail whether these accounts have to do with their investigation or how much money is in them. What the prosecutors do say is that there are indications that these companies were supposed to be managed from Panama by the lawyer Evelyn Ivette Vargas Reynaga.
According to documentation seized in Switzerland, Vargas Reynaga born in the province of Veraguas is director in the companies linked to two of the companies of the brothers Martinelli Linares with accounts in Switzerland. Evelyn Vargas Reynaga has close business ties to the Martinelli family.
She appears in a cross correspondence with Sara Montenegro, of the law firm Mossack Fonseca, in the negotiation of the purchase of a parcel in Rio Abajo near the headquarters of Ricamar, the parent company of Martinelli’s grocery store chain Super 99.
She also uses an address as being at the Ricamar headquarters, and her email address is at the domain of super99.com.
Swiss prosecutors asked Porcell to interview Vargas Reynaga and make a statement as a “witness” in their investigation.
