News
Thursday 26th January 2023.
January 26, 2023
On the eve of their departure from the United States, the Court for the Eastern District of New York announced the execution of bonds, assets and funds related to Ricardo Alberto and Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares, which were seized in the process in which both pleaded guilty. laundering up to $28 million in bribes from Odebrecht. In documents disclosed in the judicial electronic records on the night of Tuesday, January 24, there is a “confiscation notice” related to the case followed by the two sons of former President Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal . Said document lists the properties and assets that are becoming the property of the United States, in response to the sentence handed down by Judge Raymond Dearie on May 22 against Ricardo Alberto and Luis Enrique, after the two brothers pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder bribes from Odebrecht -according to them, following orders from their father-, through the US financial system. Also the titles and funds that are kept in an account ( escrow account ) at the International Finance Bank , for the benefit of Ricardo Alberto and Luis Enrique. There is also ownership of an apartment in the Icon Tower , located on Brickell Avenue, Miami, where Luis Enrique lived with his family at some point. The seizure would reach the money from the sale of that property (which the prosecution estimated at $1.4 million), as well as $5,173.42 obtained through its rental. Likewise, the execution of the bond posted was ordered when both were arrested in Miami, in November 2018, for lacking legal status to remain in the United States. That amount, to date, is $1,032,508.14, for each one. The list includes funds in accounts located in Swiss banks: one in the name of Diamong Investments Corp. and another in the name of Waterspoon International Ltd, both at Bank Vontobel AG in Switzerland. Also an account in the name of Schmid Rechtsanwalte, at UBS in Switzerland, with a deposit of $7.7 million. The document does not specify how much money was in the Bank Vontobel accounts. The document mentions that they appropriated $669,094 from Luis Enrique and another $669,094 from Ricardo Alberto, but it is not specified if these sums were in any bank or to what they correspond. The forfeiture notice was published for 30 consecutive days, from November 10 to December 9, 2022, on the website www.forfeiture.gov , so that any person or entity could file a claim regarding the assets. and money listed. Any claim must have been submitted in writing, with supporting elements, to the Brooklyn office of Assistant District Attorney Laura Mantell . In addition to ordering the delivery of the assets and money, Judge Dearie sentenced the former president’s children to 36 months in prison, but they will be released this Wednesday, January 25, because the US authorities recognized the year they were in a jail in Guatemala, waiting for the extradition process of both to the United States to be completed. In the end, Luis Enrique spent a year, two months, and 10 days in a Brooklyn jail and in a low-security prison in Pennsylvania ; Ricardo Alberto was there for a year, a month and 15 days.
The National Assembly put an end to a controversial proposal that divided public opinion because it interfered in the internal affairs of the parties: the initiative to prevent the directives of political groups from being able to revoke the command of deputies. This provision was contained in bill 776 that reforms several articles of the Electoral Code referring to administrative functions of the Electoral Administrative Prosecutors. The controversial article (12) was withdrawn from the project during the legislative session last Monday. The other articles received the green light. The proposal, which was born to oxygenate the Cambio Democrático (CD) deputy Yanibel Ábrego, at a time when together with 14 other deputies she was facing an expulsion and recall process within the CD, had been vetoed by President Laurentino Cortizo for consideration that it violated articles of the Constitution . Ábrego and her colleagues got rid of the case when the Electoral Tribunal ordered the filing of the process last September. According to PRD member Víctor Castillo, deputy member of the Legislative Government Commission, where the project was discussed, the article was withdrawn due to “the morbidity” it caused.While the rest of the project refers, among other things, to the registration process in the parties, to the power that the Electoral Tribunal and the Electoral Attorney General have to import automobiles, equipment and materials, free of introduction rights; as well as on the procedures to prepare the minutes at the polling stations. In the Assembly, there are at least two other bills aimed at reforming the electoral norm. One seeks that the ballot papers are not “burned”, as currently happens every five years in general elections. While another would try to resolve conflicts of jurisdiction between the National Directorate of Electoral Organization and the electoral administrative courts.
Some 39 people, presumably linked to the crimes of gang members and money laundering, were apprehended through operations Napoleón and Fixar, developed by the Public Ministry, together with the National Police, in the provinces of Chiriquí, Bocas del Toro and Veraguas. Through 64 raids, 31 people were apprehended for allegedly being related to drug crimes, six people are suspected of committing the crime of gang membership, while two others have pending legal proceedings.The confiscation of seven vehicles, a boat, a firearm, cash and clothing was also achieved. According to the investigations carried out by the First Superior Prosecutor for Drug-Related Crimes, the criminal network was dedicated, in an associated way, to the commission of different crimes such as the sale, transfer and distribution of drugs, micro-trafficking, money laundering, attempted homicide, possession and trafficking of firearms, and robbery among other crimes. The commissioner of the National Police, Irving Castillo, indicated that these operations seek to eradicate these criminal groups among other issues their criminal actions break into the peaceful coexistence of citizens. For this action, more than 500 police units were used, as well as officials from the Public Ministry.
The Panamanian National Police announced the retention of US citizen John Nelson Poulos, who had an Interpol alert from the Republic of Colombia, for the alleged femicide of 23-year-old DJ Valentina Trespalacios . His capture occurred on the night of this Tuesday, by the personnel of the Police Intelligence Directorate and the National Migration Service. Poulos had arrived in Panama on Monday, January 23, from Bogotá, Colombia, on Avianca flight 056. However, the investigative work alerted that the US citizen was at the Tocumen International Airport and was trying to travel to Istanbul, Turkey. A police video captures the moment when Poulos is escorted out of the Panamanian air terminal. Poulos is being investigated for the alleged murder of his girlfriend, DJ Trespalacios, who was found (last Sunday) inside a suitcase in a garbage container located on Highway 109, Los Cambulos park in the neighborhood Versailles from the town of Fontibón (Bogotá, Colombia). According to Colombian media reports, the young woman went out to a party with her American fiancé – with whom she had been with for about a year – on Friday and Saturday, for which reason her relatives suspect that her partner would be the main suspect in her death. The artist had been practicing her career as a DJ for about four years ; She made presentations in different cities of the country and also abroad.
Rbbery appears as the probable cause of the crime of Agustín Cáceres and Oneida Suárez Pinzón, aged 81 and 80 respectively, at their residence on 45th street in the Chanis urbanization, in Parque Lefevre. According to the investigations of the Homicide and Femicide Prosecutor’s Office, the man who was captured for his alleged connection to the murder, did occasional jobs for the couple. The alarm was given by the daughter of the victims, who, when she went to her parents’ residence, was received by a subject dressed in an orange sweater, who informed her that the couple had gone to a clinic. Despite this information, she and her husband entered the house and that is how they found her stepfather’s body in the living room and her mother’s body in the bathroom.
The market for telecommunications companies woke up this Wednesday, January 25, with the news of interest from the acquisition group Apollo Global Management, which partnered with the former SoftBank executive, Marcelo Claure, to explore the acquisition of Millicom International Cellular. The telecommunications company that has operations in more than 9 markets including Panama, through the Tigo brand, could be valued at 10 billion dollars, according to information published by the Financial Time newspaper indicating that this value includes debt. The news of interest in acquiring this telecom caused Millicom’s shares to open higher starting to trade this Wednesday at $17.54, and reach an increase of between 19% and 16% more compared to the price of the previous day when it closed at $14.83 per share.