Lawyer who  moved multi-million Martinelli era bribes stays in jail

The lawyer Mauricio Cort y García managed, received and transferred the “ illegal funds ” received through a public limited company – Arados del Plata, SA -, with bank accounts in other jurisdictions, for “illegal payments” to “senior officials ”in the administration of Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014)  the  Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor told to the Supreme court

The court reviewed the situation of Cort, in a habeas corpus presented by his lawyer  The plenary session – with a presentation by Abel Zamorano – considered the provisional detention ordered by the prosecutor’s office legal, which investigates Cort as part of the file for the possible extra cost in awarding the contract for the preservation of the Historical Heritage of Panama City.

The lawyer is charged with the alleged commission of corruption offenses of a civil servant and prosecuted for embezzlement and has been detained since August last year.

The contract was signed on May 19, 2011, by the then Minister of Public Works, Federico Suárez -also arrested-, and, Julio Casla representative of the Spanish FCC

The investigation includes sworn statements by Casla and Eugenio Del Barrio (also from FCC) in which they say their immediate boss Avelino Acero met Pepe Suárez at the time, “who communicates that in order for the State to pay debts of projects prior to the five-year period 2009-2014, a 10% premium had to be paid and that same percentage would be applied to new projects that would be awarded to large companies, pointing out Odebrecht and Ica-Meco ”.

“It was an imposition that was transmitted to us and that, if we did not agree to it, we would not get what we were owed and would make it difficult for us to process all the files and, in the end, we could not return to work in Panama,” Casla said. .

“The figure that should be put in the economic offer was communicated so that everyone would carry similar figures and in addition to the 10% payment on the projects that would be awarded in the case of the sections of Via Brazil,” said the prosecutor’s office to the full Court.

Both Casla and Del Barrio said that instructions were given on the flow of funds: they should be made through the company Arados del Plata, SA and the person designated as “interlocutor” with the minister was  Mauricio Cort.

They met with Cort on several occasions to “verify” the amounts that should be deposited with Arados del Plata, “as well as the signing of fictitious contracts that sought to justify these payments, in addition to confirming that there was an extra cost in the rearrangement projects in Panama City, since the payment of bribes should be incorporated ”.

Section II of the Vía Brasil corridor was assigned to FCC for $174.5 million, but the work ended up costing $216 million.

The Casco Viejo project was awarded for almost $255.5 million but had an alleged overpricing of $51.5 million.

Cort’s defense said, his client has already been sentenced to 48 months in prison as part of an agreement within the process for Odebrechtbribes, for which he would be incurring double prosecution.

The ruling declaring Cort’s detention legal, dated December 10 was signed by Zamorano (rapporteur), Olmedo Arrocha, Cecilio Cedalise, Hernán De León, Harry Díaz, Luis Ramón Fábrega, Jerónimo Mejía, and Ángela Russo. José Ayú Prado saved the vote.

Cort also appears in the so-called Blue Apple case reports La Pensa.