President accused of intervention in judicial investigation

President, Ricardo Martinelli, has been directly involved in the investigation of Pacific Financial brokerage by the public prosecutor said La Prensa on Wednesday January 2 in a front page story carrying a photo of a letter signed by Martinelli.

“This newspaper was able to confirm that, at least twice and in writing, the Executive sent guidelines to the Attorney General's Office about the case that is being investigated” says the story.
“The intrusion occurred when Mayte Pellegrini, accused of fraud of around $14 million, linked Martinelli to alleged insider trading to profit from speculation on shares of Petaquilla Minerals.
“It came after mentioning his son Ricardo Martinelli Linares as part of the group of entrepreneurs who founded a bank with partners in the brokerage Financial Pacific, whose license is currently suspended and against whom, there is a criminal complaint for money laundering, fraud and falsification of documents.
“Hardly a day had passed since the first statements of Pellegrini about the President-without any media reporting the content of her testimony, when Martinelli sent the first letter to Attoreny General Jose Ayu Prado” said La Prensa.
“The instructions were brief, but clear. After admitting that he had a personal account at Financial Pacific ‘for more than 10 years,’ the President tella Ayu Prado that such information "is not used for political purposes." Said La Prensa.
Then, "I request that this information has no impact on the investigations." In her first interviews, Pellegrini said that "there is an account called High Spirit, which  Ivan Valdes and  West Clare  have publicly stated  is. Ricardo Martinelli   and that it was only created to manipulate the stock market with shares of Petaquilla. In this way they could make money with inside information received  by President  Martinelli on Petaquilla's performance." The evidence of the president's letter is on page 7465 of the court record..
Under a reproduction of the letter, La Prensa points to a contradiction, with the president saying he has an account with Pacific Financial for over 10 years but the company has not been in existence that long.
Almost a month later, on December 20, when Pellegrini's statements began to capture the attention of the media, the president intervened again with Ayu Prado, Martinelli had now appointed to the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court..
The second letter instructed Ayu Prado to append to the file that has achieved clearance from the owners of Financial Pacific: ."Since the publication that appeared in La Estrella today," says the president, he had receive d a note from Ivan Clare , which says that the president nor any member of his family have any relationship with the company or with an account called High Spirit Overseas Ltd. The note was attached.

“Thus,” says La Prensa, "the chief executive tells the prosecutor that the note ‘is appended to the file.’ 
In her original statements, Pellegrini said precisely that. She said then that " Martinelli is not listed as an authorized signatory, but a lawyer [not identified] appears , For this, all deposits and withdrawal were made out to third parties."
Last week, Mayte Pellegrini Retracted her statement t, saying "I only repeated what Mr. Ivan Clare said in the office on several occasions, I do not know that this account is Mr. Martinelli," she said..