The Sixth Anti-Corruption Prosecutor said at a  Monday, September 16, press conference that he is seeking to call  59 people to trial in the Blue Apple case, related to bribes paid to officials by state contractors.  

The 59 people including former First Lady, Marta Martinelli, face charges for crimes, like money laundering, corruption of public servants, illegal association to commit crimes and forgery of documents.  

The request for the  hearing  was sent to the court   on September 10, 

At the conference, prosecutor Aurelio Vásquez said that, during the investigation, about 25 façade companies were discovered.  

"These companies that reached agreements and were approved accepted their responsibility and returned  $35 million that was paid," said Vásquez.

During the course of the investigation, the preventive detention of 14 people was ordered. Currently, there are only three with still held. The rest benefited from bail or through habeas corpus actions.

The Public Ministry also said that the prosecution in charge of this case could not investigate about four people for being outside the country but, the procedures to achieve their extradition remain. They include two sons of former president Ricardo Martinelli.

This process was opened on September 11, 2017, when a “basket” company was detected, allegedly created in order to receive bribes paid by state contractors in exchange for expediting payments for projects assigned between 2009 and 2014.  

Last February, the prosecution reported that through the Blue Apple company a possible property injury of $78.3 million was detected.