Panama: Odebrecht Case Hearing Scheduled for August 2023

Former Panamanian presidents Ricardo Martinelli (2009- 2014) and Juan Carlos Varela (2014-2019), including five former ministers to be put on trial.

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The trial is scheduled for August of next year, according to the resolution of the Third Criminal Court, in charge of Judge Baloisa Marquínez.

Two criminal cases were opened against those involved for the crime against the economic order in the modality of money laundering and the crime against the national economy.

Sufficient evidence has been presented by the country's Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office to bring the defendants to trial. They are accused of receiving money from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

MONEY LAUNDERING through ODEBRECH. Judge Baloisa Marquinez orders a summons to trial for two former presidents, five former ministers, a former deputy and multiple business people who served as frontmen and means of laundering money by draining them from State funds. 

The company pleaded guilty in the U.S. in 2016 to distributing more than 788 million dollars in bribes to officials and politicians in Latin America.

On the occasion, Odebrecht acknowledged having paid 59 million dollars in Panama in exchange for contracts for the construction of public works.

Ricardo Alberto and Luis Enrique Martinelli, sons of former President Ricardo Martinelli, are currently in prison in the U.S. for pleading guilty to paying twenty-eight thousand dollars in bribes from the Brazilian construction company.