Maritza Ureña, the Former DGI Deputy Director, is Being Investigated for Unjust Enrichment.
Maritza Ureña González pictured below, in 2019, was appointed National Deputy Director of Revenue. The prosecution is investigating the former deputy director of the DGI, Maritza Ureña González, for alleged unjustified enrichment of $428,000, and three of her properties were seized.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation for alleged unjustified enrichment to the detriment of the Panamanian State against Maritza Ureña González, second in command at the General Directorate of Revenue (DGI) during the administration of former President Laurentino Cortizo (2019-2024). The injury, according to an audit by the Comptroller General of the Republic, amounts to $428,000, money that Ureña has supposedly been unable to justify. According to the cited official document, the former official allegedly moved $1,013,000 of which she could only account for $585,000.
As a result, on August 5, Senior Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Juan Gutiérrez ordered the Public Registry to provisionally seize three properties: two located in the province of Panama and one in Coclé, where the former official’s son—lawyer Luis Acevedo Ureña —also purchased land near downtown Penonomé. According to the Comptroller’s audit, the former official had income, including bank balances, totaling $577,000. Ureña’s current salary for the position she held at the DGI is $3,500 per month plus $1,500 in representation expenses, for a total of $5,000 per month, which would have generated income of approximately $300,000 over the past five years.
The Beginning.
The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s investigation originated from a memo sent by the Comptroller General’s Office’s National Directorate of Investigations and Forensic Audits (DIAF), signed by the head of the institution, Anel Flores . The memo was accompanied by the forensic audit report, “related to the possible unjustified enrichment” of Ureña. According to current legislation, the former official –if found guilty of the crime she is charged with– could face a sentence of between 3 and 6 years in prison, although there is an aggravating circumstance: if the unjustified enrichment is greater than $100,000 –as in the present case–, the sentence would then be from 6 to 12 years in prison.
$585,000
Resources ‘from a known source’ that Maritza Ureña received.
$1.01 Million
Resources used by the former deputy director of the DGI.
$428,000
The sum that the person under investigation, according to the audit, has not justified.
Regarding this crime, it is specified that “unjustified enrichment will be understood to exist not only when the patrimony has been increased with money, things or goods, with respect to legitimate income, but also when debts have been cancelled or obligations that affected it have been extinguished.”
Seized Properties.
The first property seized was No. 30413445. It is an apartment of approximately 60 square meters, located in the Panama Viejo Residences building, in the Parque Lefevre district of Panama City. According to Public Registry documents, the property is valued at $144,000 and was acquired in 2023, although the occupancy permit was dated December 14, 2022. A Resolution of August 5, 2026, signed by anti-corruption prosecutor Juan Gutiérrez, ordering the provisional seizure of properties in the name of the former deputy director of Ingreesos, Maritza Ureña González.
The acquisition was made through a mortgage –agreed to five years– for an amount of $137,000. Previously, in a letter dated May 2026, addressed to the Public Registry, Comptroller Flores ordered the seizure of this apartment “and other properties that appear registered in the Public Registry” in the name of the former official. And that wasn’t all. Flores also ordered the seizure of “money, funds, securities, deposits, fixed-term deposits, checking accounts, savings accounts, credit cards, encrypted accounts and safety deposit boxes” in banks, cooperatives and financial institutions in Ureña’s name, as well as vehicles and other financial assets.
Villa Belén pictured above, a neighborhood in Penonomé where José Gabriel Carrizo lived and where there is a property (now seized) registered in the name of Maritza Ureña.
The second property seized by the Superior Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office is No. 47233, a property located in the Villa Belén neighborhood, in Chigoré, Penonomé district, where former president José Gabriel “Gaby” Carrizo had his residence until mid-2019. Carrizo was a partner of Luis Acevedo Ureña, son of Maritza Ureña, who is now being investigated by the Comptroller’s Office and the Superior Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. Ureña bought the aforementioned house in September 2025, according to documents registered with the Public Registry. She paid $69,000 in cash at a bank auction.
Pictured below, Maritza Ureña (dressed in white), with her son, Luis Acevedo Ureña (seated), when the latter launched his unsuccessful candidacy for representative of Parque Lefevre for the PRD in 2024.
And the third property seized by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office is No. 150290, located in San Miguelito. This is a property that Ureña acquired through a mortgage agreed upon for 28 years in 2013. Ureña arranged a bank mortgage to obtain a loan of $81,000, intended to buy the house, whose value at the time was $90,000. However, 11 years later in April 2024, that is, 17 years before the payment deadline the mortgage was fully paid off by Ureña, according to documents from the Public Registry. The outstanding balance of the paid-off mortgage at that time is not mentioned.
Stem Purchases.
In addition to the properties Maritza Ureña acquired and paid for, her son, Luis Acevedo Ureña, also made significant purchases around the same time. For example, this lawyer who was the PRD candidate for representative in Parque Lefevre in the May 2024 elections, acquired a luxury apartment in The Woods building in Santa María, one of the most exclusive residential areas of the capital.
Located in the exclusive The Woods residential complex in Santa María, Gaby Carrizo’s former business partner purchased a house valued at over $800,000 with a mortgage from the state-owned savings bank, Caja de Ahorros. Her real estate holdings since the previous administration total nearly $1 million. Acevedo purchased the property in February 2024, according to documents filed with the Public Registry. He did so through a 35-year mortgage with the state-owned bank Caja de Ahorros (CA), for $620,000, although the property’s value is $821,000. This represents a down payment of over $200,000 from Acevedo, an amount the seller received “to his complete satisfaction.”
The contract specifies that the purchase of the property does not include “membership in the Santa María Country Club or membership in the golf course.” These would be additional expenses, as were “the installation of lamps, electrical fixtures, interior decorative moldings, bathroom accessories, appliances, or any other decorative element…” Acevedo also acquired his own offices for his professional practice. He did so in the name of a company called White Star Properties, Inc. The purchase was made a few months after the previous government came to power.
The Former Deputy Director, her Assets, and the Prosecutor.
1
Maritza Ureña was the deputy director of the DGI from July 2, 2019 to July 1, 2024.
2
While holding that position, he made expenses, disbursements, and deposits totaling $1.01 million.
3
As deputy director of the DGI, I received $5,000 a month: $3,500 salary and $1,500 representation expenses.
4
Prosecutor Juan Gutiérrez ordered the seizure of three properties: an apartment in Parque Lefevre and two houses (in San Miguelito and in Villa Belén, Chigoré).
5
The measure of seizing assets is based on the possibility of transferring them to third parties and on the nature of the crime being investigated (unjust enrichment).
It was a purchase of $76,000; at least that’s what’s stated in the Public Registry. The offices are located in the PH Plaza Ejecutiva building in Bella Vista, and there is no record of any mortgage. And, like her mother, Acevedo purchased a plot of land in Penonomé on March 10, 2022, through the company Cerro Alto Real Estate, Inc. She bought it from members of the Carrizo family for $100,000, likely in cash, as there are no mortgage records. Acevedo arranged for installment payments of $50,000, $20,000, and $30,000.
A Network.
Acevedo was an important collaborator outside the walls of the now former vice president Carrizo and identified by multiple sources as his main operator, inside and outside the government sphere, whose scope of action included, precisely, the Savings Bank and the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP), among others.
José Gabriel Carrizo (Left) and Luis Acevedo Ureña.
Carrizo and Acevedo also worked at the Donoso gold mine and in law firms. After Carrizo was sworn in as vice president, Acevedo became a close collaborator who helped him structure networks of operatives inside and outside the country, whose appointments in the government, specifically at the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) were personally managed by Acevedo through Nadia del Río, former assistant to former President Cortizo. Del Río is also being investigated for alleged unjust enrichment, as is former AMP director Noriel Araúz, who faces charges of alleged aggravated unjust enrichment. Last week, a questionnaire was sent to incorporate the version of the investigated party channeled through Luis Acevedo, son of Maritza Ureña, but there was no response from either of them.
