In an investigation that lasted three years and four months, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office concluded that politicians, sports leaders and individuals benefited from public funds provided by the Panamanian Sports Institute (Pandeportes) with the alleged intention of building courts and buying sports equipment. .
Prosecutor Leyda Sáenz revealed that between 2014 and 2018 there were serious anomalies in the management of state funds allocated by Pandeportes and managed through the National Baseball Federation (Fedebeis), the National Basketball Federation (Fepaba) and sports associations. These funds, according to the investigations, were not used for the repair of sports fields or for the organization of leagues in remote areas such as the Ngäbe-Buglé region, Darién or neighborhoods of San Miguelito and Panamá.
Saénz made accusations against the former directors of Pandeportes Roberto Arango and Mario Pérez, whom he accuses of the crime of embezzlement, by allowing different sports federations and associations to embezzle funds given as social support and development of sports activities.
In the case of Pérez, the accusation is related to the management of a subsidy given by Pandeportes to organize a professional basketball league, which was not even recognized by Pandeportes.
Regarding former deputies Adolfo Valderrama, of the Panameñista Party, and Jaime Pedrol, of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, the prosecution also made serious accusations.
In the case of Valderrama, the prosecutor accuses him of the alleged commission of the crime of money laundering, after between 2015 and 2018 he mobilized funds through former officials of the National Assembly, members of Fepaba and different legal and commercial entities that they acted as figureheads to channel money that came from Pandeportes. It adds that Valderrama, through the Eade Group company, located in the Salduba building, where the Panameñista Party headquarters are located, and through figureheads, used money from embezzlement, since they had originally been requested for the Professional Basketball League, not recognized by Pandeportes.
In the case of Pedrol, the prosecution says that he collaborated so that the Fedebeis embezzled funds from Pandeportes, requesting economic and social support for the development of baseball with the purchase of uniforms and sports equipment for the 12-2 circuit for some 15 communities in the Ngäbe-Buglé region. But these implements were never delivered.
He also attributed the crime of embezzlement to Jair Peralta, president of Fepaba, whom he accuses of embezzling public funds that were assigned to that federation by Pandeportes for the development of that sport in different communities in the country, which included the purchase of implements. sports.
Between 2016 and 2019, he acted as the signatory of a Fepaba bank account and used it to transfer and thus receive resources from the embezzlement of public funds.
At the same time, the prosecutor filed charges against six other people, including the former manager of the Fedebeis Aníbal Reluz; Ana Virginia Tejada, former manager of the Technical Directorate of Sport and Recreation of Pandeportes.
