Published: Less than 30 min ago
Two former presidents of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli and Juan Carlos Varela, are suspected of having laundered money from the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. The company has admitted to having paid multimillion-dollar bribes in the country.
The two former presidents were not present when the trial began. According to the prosecutors, they have used companies and foreign bank accounts to receive money from the company Odebrecht. Martinelli was president of Panama 2009–2014 and Varela 2014–2019.
About 50 other people may be drawn into the tangle, among them several former ministers, the prosecutors say.
In 2016, Odebrecht pleaded guilty in a court in Brooklyn, USA, to having paid over $788 million in bribes to government officials and political parties mainly in Latin America. In Panama, the company paid $59 million to get contracts for public works, among them two metro lines and an expansion of the international airport. According to the prosecutors, the company salted the invoices for certain projects.
According to the indictment, Varela’s party has received 10 million dollars from the construction company. He denies all the charges.
Martinelli is accused of having fully understood the illegal origin of the money, and of having created a “completely illegal structure” for the bribes. Two of his sons have admitted to taking $28 million in bribes from the company.