Names of Martinelli’s inner circle surface at hearing

The nearly 900 pages being read by Prosecutor Ruth  Ruth Morcillo before Judge Baloisa Marquínez details the formation of the corruption scheme used for the alleged money laundering by former officials of the Panamanian government and is the opportunity that citizens have to listen to the narration of the case, to know what was investigated, what facts were corroborated, what people, former public officials are being investigated and other details she said on arriving at the Supreme  Court on Tuesday.

She recalled that there is an agreement with the Odebrecht company for an injury to the State of more than $220 million but he did not rule out that there is more, since in the investigation it was possible to corroborate that the sum to the detriment of the State is substantial.

They continued reading the investigation of Rosa Marín Molino Paz, in which the way in which the law firm Rosas & Rosas operated, in which she does not accept the charges that were investigated since she indicates that she did not know that the transfer services provided to Norberto Odebrecht came from illegal activities.

The former deputy Jorge Rosas Rodríguez, who was a member of the firm Rosas & Rosas, an investigation, indicated that from 2009 to 2018 he was on leave because he was elected as a deputy, assuring that during the periods he held an elected position was practically totally unrelated to forensic practice.

Regarding his relationship with  Odebrecht, he stated that it began in 2004, when he returned to the firm not having been reelected. One day he met the legal representative André Rabelo and the first matter he handled was Rabelo’s residence lease, and then he handled corporate matters for Constructora Norberto Odebrecht Panama and Brazil, as well as a third company.

He stressed that when he did business with the company he was not an official, he did not manage public works contracts, nor was he involved in bidding processes.

The investigation indicates that it was possible to verify the payment orders delivered in a degree of collaboration by Odebrecht the existence of the company Pivotal Corp, which also records illicit payments received through different structures created by Odebrecht for the payment of bribes to officials.

Pivotal Investments SA , registered in Panama, had as final beneficiary Carlos Ho González, former director of Special Projects of the Ministry of Public Works), but was dissolved on June 17, 2010, through which it was established, and carried out the business of an investment company to buy, sell, and consumer goods, real estate, stocks, bonds, and more.

Ho detailed how the cost overruns were made in works such as the extension of the rehabilitation of Domingo Díaz Avenue, where the company set global prices for the main bridges, about 7,500 dollars per square meter of the bridge road , the values ​​in the market at that time they were between 2,000 and 2,500 per square meter, that is, the endorsed price was more than three times the market value.

Ho was sentenced to 72 months in prison for crimes against the Public Administration in 2019, after having made an effective collaboration agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office.

fictitious contracts 

In the investigation, information was obtained from the Principality of Andorra that confirms that the Aeon Group company is a shell structure used by the Odebrecht Structural Operations Department to transfer illicit money to justify said money before the banking entities. They presented fictitious contracts because they never provided the services. established.

In the investigation, Andrés León Mozes affirmed that his sister-in-law Danna Harris, who served as executive secretary of the National Council for Sustainable Development, asked him to be part of a construction equipment business for Panama and the Dominican Republic.

He indicated that the Rafult Limited company was created by Harris and owns the funds that were transferred there, which was used as support for the funds the contract with the Aeon Group company, for the sum of 3.5 million, and added that other companies were created to which funds were transferred from Rafoult Limited, but at the end of his contract with the government of Ricardo Martinelli, she requested the opening of a bank account.

“When she sees a black picture and not knowing what will happen to the funds that were in the VS bank where she was an account officer, she asks me to open an account in the Safra bank branch in Panama, it should be noted that at the time of opening the account at VS Bank, Danna Harris did not justify the funds with the contract between Rafult Limited and Aeon Group, but rather that the funds came from an inheritance during my grandfather’s lifetime. At the time of opening the account at the Safra bank, it did not allow me to show the contract signed with Aeon Group”, explained León Mozes.

He said that on his wedding day, Harris called him to confess that it was a fictitious contract.

Roberto Carretero and Ramón Carretero, the latter indicated that the Corporación Logística del Caribe company was created 20 years ago with a presence in the Island of Cuba and added his brother Roberto Carretero without this implying that he had a share in the profits of the company.

Carretero assured that he had known Ricardo Francolini since 2000, he sold cement to Francolini’s company and in 2010 Francolini asked him to receive transactions in his bank account opened in China, due to how difficult it was to open an account in this jurisdiction and that these funds were not related to his businesses and those of his family.

Later he found out that the payments received were related to Odebrecht, but being a businessman and collaborator of former president Ricardo Martinelli, he did not think it was illegal.

Regarding the transactions with Jaime Lasso, he said that he is his business partner and for 2011 they signed a contract for the distribution of promotional products of an electoral political nature for more than $3 million but he did not know that the funds came from Odebrecht.

In addition, he said that he knew Juan Carlos Varela and Ricardo Martinelli before they were presidents and because a small friendship unites them 

Jaime Lasso in the investigation told how the money received from Odebrecht was transferred to the vice-presidential candidate and he understands that they were declared to the Electoral Court. He said that his relationship and his support for the Panameñista party date back to 2008.

He recounted how his relationship with Odebrecht was divided from 2008-2009 prior to the elections and from 2009-2011 when the alliance was broken.

On the second day of the hearing, the testimonies of the investigations of several former officials and people who participated in the creation of corporations, bank accounts and businesses that would serve to carry out the alleged crime were heard.

Friends, relatives and acquaintances of the former officials were entangled in the plot, who gave details of how they are contacted to do business and create corporations. But they assured that they were unaware that they had illicit purposes.

The name of the brothers Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares and Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares was repeatedly named as final beneficiaries of the corporations.