A court in New York has sentenced two sons of Panama's former president Ricardo Martinelli to three years in prison each for involvement in an international money laundering and bribery scheme, the US Justice Department said
NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st May, 2022) A court in New York has sentenced two sons of Panama's former president Ricardo Martinelli to three years in prison each for involvement in an international money laundering and bribery scheme, the US Justice Department said.
"Two brothers (Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares and Ricardo Enrique Martinelli Linares), each a dual-citizen of Panama and Italy, were each sentenced to 36 months in prison for laundering $28 million in a bribery and money laundering scheme involving Odebrecht S.A. (Odebrecht), a Brazil-based global construction conglomerate. The defendants were also ordered to forfeit more than $18.8 million, pay a $250,000 fine and serve two years' supervised release," the department said in a press release on Friday.
Both sons of Panama's former president were extradited to the United States by the Guatemalan authorities. In December last year, Luis Enrique Martinelli had admitted to being involved, with his brother and others, in a $28 million money laundering and bribery scheme that involved Odebrecht.
In summer 2020, the brothers tried to depart Guatemala on a private airplane but were arrested and have since been held in a local military prison pending extradition.
According to a US Court, Latin American political elites received millions in bribes from Oderbrecht, one of the main contractors of Brazilian energy giant Petrobras. In total, Oderbecht paid foreign politicians and public officials $439 million between 2001 and 2016. Among the recipients of the bribes were civil servants from Argentina, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Venezuela. The initial scheme involved the payment of more than $700 million in bribes to public officials in Panama and other countries.
