Cash to Martinelli confession to Supreme Court

THE CONFESSION under oath, of businessman Cristóbal Salerno that he delivered millions of dollars in cash, garnered from a company collecting back taxes, to then president Ricardo Martinelli, will be forwarded to the Supreme Court  says Rolando Rodriguez, secretary general of the Public Ministry (MP).

They will be added to a growing list of criminal complaints against the self-exiled former leader who fled the country In January, and when last seen was in Miami.

Multiple observers and civil groups are calling for quick action by the justice system, including the use of Interpol.

Rodriguez told La Prensa on Saturday May 23:  “Regarding Ricardo Martinelli, you have to submit to the Court. The Public Ministry is not competent and has no powers to investigate a member of the Central American Parliament (Parlacen),” This is the third case against the former leader in court, already investigating him for allegedly committing crime against the public administration [embezzlement] in buying $44.9 million of  dehydrated food million through the National Assistance  Program ( PAN) The The Court is also examining eight complaints against Martinelli filed by victims of wiretaps perpetrated by the previous government. 

Since Friday afternoon, when Salerno revealed the alleged web of corruption to anti-prosecutor Ruth Morcillo, she has  asked representatives of various offices  to send copies of  files to the Supreme Court, because Martinelli  is a member of Parlacen.
Carlos Gasnell, vice president of  the Panama Chapter of Transparency International, said: “It will be up to the MP to assess the testimony and determine what appropriate action to take  given  the issue of the Central American Parliament.

“What is reported about the briefcases of money is a concern, but needs to be tested, and, unfortunately, one of the characteristics of many crimes of corruption is that they hide their tracks,” he said.

Gasnell, asked that the case be referred to the Court as soon as possible so that after due process ” there is exemplarily punishment for all those found guilty, by commission and omission
Mitchell Doens, founding member of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), believes that:  “we must pick him up wherever he is.”
He said that the US authorities should be asked to hand him over because he is to blame for everything that happened in Panama.
Elisa Suarez, president of the National Council of Private Enterprise, said that as a guild, they will always defend the fulfillment of justice and due process.
“The law cannot be selective, but has to be firm and applied to those who do not comply with all its rigor,” she said.
The president of the Panamanian Association of Business Executives and current president of the Democracy and Freedom Foundation, Enrique De Obarrio.said the revelations:  “Are the most serious and decisive to date … and seem  to confirm a
white-collar criminal organization to raid the public treasury, in the vilest and insatiable way with the official seal.
“He orchestrated the Palace of the Herons ” he argued.
“This, a crime against the country, a slap to the democratic system and a heartless mockery of the poor in this country.”

Ramon Fonseca Mora, deputy president of the Panameñista Party, said the revelations of Salerno “are another element in addition that seems to confirm that we were in the hands of a mafia organization”.
Aurelio Barria, a founder of the  Civil Crusade, spoke out on Twitter t: “If accusations against Noriega by Diaz Herrera in 1987 were grave, those by Christopher Salerno against Martinelli are equal.”
CONFESSION
In his second day of questioning, Salerno confessed that he gave Martinelli “suitcases with cash” every two or three months, at the offices of Monte Oscuro, administrative seat of tSuper 99, one of the businesses of the former president.
He added that in each case was between $400,000 and $600,000 thousand, as part of the management of the Isthmus Collection.agency. (See table)
La Prensa emailed former Finance Minister Alberto Vallarino, who signed performance bonds [$450 000] and management [$50,000] for hiring debt collectors in August 2010, but received  no answer .
Martinelli spokesman, Luis E. Camacho, also did not answer.