New Corcionne money laundering evidence

PANAMA’S Organized Crime Prosecutor has uncovered evidence of alleged money laundering by businessman Nicholas Corcione through accounts linked to ex- Supreme Court judge  Alejandro Moncada Luna.

Public Ministry sources confirmed to La Prensa that Organized Crime prosecutor  Nahaniel Murgas, found in a  Banco General  accounts two checks in the name of Cobros GC, SA, which are presumed to correspond to payments made to Corcione, by the owners of   Conceptos y Espacios S.A., in exchange for a contract given by  Moncada Luna for the redevelopment of the Maritime Court,  when he  was president of the Supreme Court,

“The checks were passed from   Jorge Espino and Julian Paris into Corcione’s account at Banco General,” said the source.

Espino, in preventive detention, said that after participating in the tender, Corcione proposed  he should pay   $600,000 for the contract.

Corcione is  charged with alleged money laundering. The case is mired in court because Corcione’s defense appealed to the Criminal Division of the Court, to determine whether he could be prosecuted as a director of the Panama Canal Authority.

KEY WITNESS
Businessman and former vice president Felipe Pipo Virzi  is going to expand his preliminary statement in  the alleged money laundering case

The prosecutorial decision to allow the extension, comes in the wake of a request from the defense of Virzi, in order to clarify certain points in his first statement, in which he claimed not to have any involvement in the money laundering and that everything he did was to help Moncada Luna.

Virzi who initially revealed to the prosecutor that he  ‘pretended’ to lend money to  Moncada Luna requested the extension.

Sources close to the process revealed that in the new appointment, Virzi will change his version. This was confirmed  by Virzi’s lawyer.

The role of Virzi  in the case  is crucial, as the jailed  former judgeMoncada Luna said “Uncle Pipo” loaned  him $700,000 for the purchase of an apartment .

Later Moncada Luna later contradicted himself saying that the loan was not $700,000, but $1.8 million.

Pedro Miguel González, attorney of a National Assembly process against the ex-judge for unjust enrichment and other charges, seized bank accounts of more than a dozen companies, some of them belonging to Virzi.

A similar operation was launched by the  Organized Crime Prosecutor as part of money laundering investigations that are in the final phase, but are currently stalled pending the Criminal Chamber of the Court resolving  an appeal by Corcione’s lawyer, to determine whether it must be processed through the adversarial or inquisitorial system.

Attorney Roberto Moreno argued that his client should be investigated by the adversarial criminal justice system, as a member of the board of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP).

This thesis is refuted by experts, who argue that the directors of the ACP are not officials with command and national jurisdiction and the case therefore must be processed in accordance with the inquisitorial system.

The case is in the hands of Judge Mario Luis Carrasco, after Harry Diaz withdrew because he is a neighbor of Corcione.

Corcione has been out of the country since early July, days before he found out the prosecutor was  investigating him for alleged money laundering.

Espino, said during  interrogation that of the $600,000 asked for by Corcione $400,000, was to be deposited in the account Cubemu, SA, linked to Virzi and businessman Ricky Ricardo Calvo; and another, for $200,000, to Cobros  GC, SA.

Virzi is under house arrest.