The Public Ministry requested a trial for 16 people charged with the crime of money laundering through the New Business corporation, which allowed the acquisition of the Editora Panamá América (Epasa).
The line of investigation of the prosecution establishes that Epasa was acquired through a basket company, where the money from state contracts that had been granted to various corporations arrived.
“The Public Ministry has presented the elements of conviction based on the banking information that rests in the investigation. In the same way, with the certifications of the issuance of the checks and the corresponding audit report that prove the commission of the criminal act, “explained Emeldo Márquez, of the First Specialized Prosecutor’s Office against Organized Crime.
In 2010, a high-ranking official from the Presidency asked the businessmen for that money to purchase the Panamanian publishing group, the prosecutor’s office said.
“The Public Ministry has emphasized this aspect in today’s hearing, in which the call to trial alludes to the fact that the people who are being called to trial gave financial contributions for the purchase of shares of the publishing group,” Marquez detailed.
The investigation began on March 6, 2017 after the judicial investigation body identified that the purchase of the shares of Epasa, which publishes three newspapers with national circulation, was carried out through a complex scheme in which legal and natural persons intervened. carried out financial stratification maneuvers to collect, between December 15 and 27, 2019, $43.9 million in a bank account corresponding to the company, New Business Services Limited.
