News
Thursday 15th November 2024.
November 13, 2024
On June 11, the Office of the Legal Attaché of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States, sent a letter to the Attorney General of the Nation, Javier Caraballo . After thanking the Public Ministry (MP) for its collaboration with the FBI, the attaché got to the point. It was about Odila Castillo , the former official of the Comptroller General of the Republic who became a millionaire in two years.
As is now known, Castillo accumulated $13.6 million between 2021 and 2023 —almost $11 million in the last year of that period alone— billed for his legal services, provided through the firm Castillo, Guardia & Asociados , whose original name was Palacios, Vásquez & Asociados , a firm in which the current general secretary of the Comptroller’s Office, Zenia Vásquez , was also a partner .
“I hereby inform you that the FBI has identified a possible case of public corruption. According to information obtained through human and open sources, Ms. Castillo of [the firm] Castillo, Guardia & Asociados, extorts businessmen by requesting that they pay a percentage in exchange for obtaining contracts with the government and obtaining approval and issuance of payments from various government agencies,” stated the letter, whose authenticity was corroborated by La Prensa .
The Press does not know whether, as a result of this letter (which arrived in Caraballo via the United States Embassy in Panama ), the MP began an investigation, although in recent weeks there has been an ongoing process (whose origin is unknown) in which businessmen have been summoned to give their testimonies.
Castillo and his lawyers would be aware of the FBI note, since they have access to the MP’s digital platform that allows them to examine the investigation file.
The FBI letter mentions one specific case, although it warns that there may be more.
“One of the victims is the company Trasa Thermo King , from whom Ms. Castillo requested a 10% payment in 2021 in exchange for obtaining the last payment owed to them from an original contract of approximately $1.3 million dollars with MiBus.”
The president and legal representative of Trasa Thermo King is Kathleen de McGrath, Odila Castillo’s former mother-in-law.
The letter to Caraballo ended by explaining that “today, Trasa Thermo King has not received that last payment since it did not agree to pay the extortion,” a fact that remains the same to date, according to sources from the MP.
The letter adds that, “according to human sources, there are other people involved in this scheme along with Ms. Castillo, as well as other victims.”
This case coincides with the testimony of a person who told La Prensa about a similar case.
Subject to strict confidentiality, the source told this media that in December 2020, Castillo – who was then an advisor at the Comptroller’s Office – summoned her “to discuss a very important matter” at the headquarters of her former offices, in the building known as El Tornillo , on Calle 50. When she showed up at the reception, she received instructions to leave her phone there, before meeting with her.
“She pulled out a file from the Comptroller’s Office on a contract for which we had a scheduled payment on that date of almost $800,000. She informed me that they had found some observations in the contract and that, if I did not pay 10%, my payment would be cancelled. At that time, I consulted with my family and they all said absolutely not,” the source told La Prensa .
Precisely, also in mid-April, lawyer Jorge Camarena denounced something very similar on the radio program of journalist Álvaro Alvarado – Noticias 180 minutes –, indicating that a former official of the Comptroller’s Office demanded a bribe of 10% of the value of the contract agreed with the State from a contractor, which, to this day, has not been cancelled because the contractor refused to pay the bribe.
Camarena knows this case because the contractor he talked about on Alvarado’s program is his client. He claimed that he was not the only one, that there were several contractors in the same situation, that is, that they have refused to pay so that the Comptroller’s Office delivers the checks owed by the government. There are several businessmen – national and foreign – who have suffered this harassment so that they pay bribes, ranging from 10% to 15%, in exchange for receiving the payments owed, he said.
The lawyer said that his client was warned that if he “did not pay 10% of the total amount, the payments would be withheld. That was in 2020 and that client… to date has not received payment. Excuses and more excuses have always been given to him, but he has not been paid.”
Other witnesses report an alleged radius of action of Castillo’s legal services.
These are contractors of the Ministry of Public Works (MOP) , where a mid-level official allegedly received expensive gifts from Castillo.
And that’s not all. The National Council for Sustainable Development (Conades) is another of the institutions in which Castillo had had interaction with some of his contractors. Witnesses who have spoken to this media outlet under strict confidentiality of their identity have recounted this.
They have said that they had to pay large sums of money to Castillo for his collection efforts with the State. After his intervention, they received the checks in a short time. This was in contrast to their previous situation, when their claims took years to receive payment.
The FBI letter—which mentions only one case—is signed by the person at the U.S. Embassy who serves as legal attaché for the Office of the Legal Attaché, FBI Republic of Panama.
Odila Castillo has not responded to the questionnaires sent by La Prensa , but Castillo, Guardia & Asociados has issued statements in which it maintains that the accusations against it have the sole purpose of creating “causticism” and “lacerating the good name” of the firm.
A section of the Inter-American Highway near Bella Vista de Tolé collapsed on the morning of Wednesday, November 13, temporarily closing the road for motor vehicles.
As a temporary solution, a crossing was enabled by the Land Transit and Transport Authority (ATTT).
The situation has generated a long line of private and freight cars in both directions.
Landslides have been recorded at this point on the important international highway on three occasions.
The construction of a gas pipeline to facilitate the transport of this fuel between the Atlantic and the Pacific is among the plans and projects that the Panama Canal is considering developing , in order to diversify its activity beyond maritime transport.
This was revealed by the administrator of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) , Ricaurte Vásquez , at the International Maritime Conference in Houston, United States, pointing out that it is a plan to evaluate new alternatives to diversify the Canal’s operations and that it includes a gas pipeline.
“It is important to view Panama as a major route with the Canal as the cornerstone, which is why we want to highlight that in response to the request of Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino to increase the volume of WTI [West Texas crude oil] transiting through the Canal, we are evaluating different diversification options, including forms of transportation such as gas pipelines, which will allow the Canal to look beyond maritime transport and take advantage of its prestigious geographic location to find alternative sources of income,” revealed the administrator.
The board of directors of the Panama Passport Authority approved an additional cost of $75 to expedite the issuance of passports in cases of emergency, weekends and holidays.
This is stipulated in Resolution JD-01-2024 of October 17, 2024, published in the Official Gazette this Wednesday, November 13.
Currently, the costs for processing the travel document are as follows: for retirees, 50 dollars; for regular people, minors and naturalized foreigners, it costs 100 dollars; for retired pensioners, it costs 600 dollars.
For diplomats, consuls and officials, there is no cost.
The production of rice, corn, horticultural products and livestock have been affected by the heavy rains that have occurred in the province of Chiriquí during the last two weeks, according to farmers, who are still calculating the amount of losses.
Gabriel Araúz, president of the New Association of Rice Producers of Chiriquí (Napach), estimates that more than 2,000 hectares of rice have been lost.
In some areas, the entire crop for the second half of the year has been lost, as is the case of the production lands in La Barqueta, Alanje, where access is not possible even with a tractor.
“A difficult situation of shortages of various products is approaching, which would lead to a distortion of prices in the markets, affecting consumers and producers,” said Araúz.
While the rains continue, in the wholesale sales area of the Cold Chain in David, shortages of some products are already observed; wholesalers were also trying to sell their products under improvised awnings and umbrellas so as not to paralyze commercial activity.
This Tuesday, the Ministry of Economy and Finance held the last auction of treasury bills scheduled for this year, as part of the Market Makers program and placed through the Latin American Stock Exchange (Latinex).
The MEF detailed that the auction was announced for an indicative amount of $100 million and with a maturity in November 2025, which generated the receipt of 52 competitive offers for $135.68 million and 6 non-competitive offers for $11.51 million, for a total of 58 offers with accumulated demand of $147.19 million.
Despite the increase in the amount of the offers received, which exceeded the operation’s expectations, the MEF decided to award a lower amount. In detail, it awarded $73.3 million in competitive offers and $11.51 million in non-competitive offers, for a total awarded of $84.81 million; approximately 58% of the total amount of the offers received.
The MEF obtained a weighted average price of 94.19% in the operation with a weighted average yield of 6.10%.
The National Energy Secretariat announced the new fuel prices, which will be in effect from this Friday, November 15, until Friday, November 29, 2024.
According to the price table published this Wednesday, November 13 in the Official Gazette , 95 octane gasoline will remain at $0.88 per liter ($3.34 per gallon) and 91 octane gasoline will register an increase of one cent and will be sold at $0.85 per liter ($3.22 per gallon).
Low-sulfur diesel is reported to be priced at $0.81 ($3.06 per gallon) and will increase by two cents.
The new fuel prices will take effect at 6:00 am on Friday, November 15, until 5:59 am on Friday, November 29, 2024.