A Panamanian court on Friday (December 9th) ordered charges against former President Ricardo Martinelli for alleged money laundering, the second corruption case he will face in 2023.
Judge Baloisa Marquinez ordered the trial of Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014), arguing that the funds used to buy the Epasa publishing house in 2010 by businessmen close to him would have “illegal origin”. The Panamanian prosecution claims that in 2010, eighteen transactions were carried out, for nearly 40 million dollars, with the company New Business to acquire several companies, using twelve banks from Panama, the United States, Switzerland and from China.
“A political circus”
But the 70-year-old former president, owner of a supermarket chain, counters that it is “of a political circus” to prevent him from being a candidate again in the presidential election of May 2024. On November 8, the same magistrate ordered that Ricardo Martinelli and former president Juan Carlos Varela (2014-2019) be tried in another file alleged laundering of bribes paid by the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. This trial is scheduled to take place from August 1 to 18, 2023.
According to the prosecution, Martinelli and Varela received money from Odebrecht through shell companies and accounts abroad, in a scandal that also affected other Latin American leaders. Over the past four years, almost thirty corruption cases have been opened in Panama, but so far there have been no convictions of senior officials or the files have been closed.
Martinelli’s two sons, Ricardo and Luis Enrique, are in prison in the United States after pleading guilty to receiving $28 million in commissions from Odebrecht while their father was president.