The banking operation that the National Bank of Panama (BNP) carried out with the purchase of no objection certificates (CNO) for about $ 120 million from Odebrecht to finance the line 2 work of the Metro is very similar to that used by Caja de Ahorros to grant a loan to Consortium HPC-Contratas-P&V for the construction of the Amador Convention Center.
In the case of Caja de Ahorros, the Public Prosecutor´s Office decided to open an investigation and legally process all the Board of Directors of the previous Government, arguing that an injury to the State had been caused.
Invoice purchase or "factoring" is not an operation occurring outside of the Panamanian banking system.
What is more, the first anti-corruption Prosecutor, Tania Sterling, keeps both the former President of the Board of Directors of the State-owned bank Riccardo Francolini and the former Manager of that entity Jayson Pastor detained.
Francolini has spent today 99 days in prison, while Pastor has been detained for 83 days today.
In an official statement, BNP made it clear that the purchase of invoices from Odebrecht during the Government of Juan Carlos Varela "did not represent any economic risk for the Bank, as the payment of acquired credits was duly guaranteed and had the endorsement of the Comptroller General of the Republic".
The Panamanian State Bank had to come to the rescue of the Brazilian company that built the line 2 of the Metro, after running out of funding to meet one of the major works of the Varela administration.
The operation was managed at the mid of year 2016 for the service of engineering design, construction of civil works, ancillary facilities of line and stations, supply and installation of the rail system that includes the railway rolling stock and the start-up of the line 2 of the Metro of Panama.
According to the National Bank, the institution earned interests from this project.
This project was awarded to the consortium formed by the companies Norberto Odebrecht and FCC Constructions, at a cost of $ 1,857 million, plus funding of some $ 207 million.
The 22-km long project began in September of last year and should be delivered in December 2018.
No objection certificates are legally used to support bank financing and this has been validated through the statement by the BNP.
In the writing by the financial intermediary of the State it is explained that the purchase of invoices or factoring is not an operation occurring outside of the Panamanian banking and financial system, because this service is part of the ordinary course of operations offered by banks in the square.
The million-dollar operation promoted by the current administration of the BNP, led by Rolando de León, in favor of Odebrecht, was endorsed by the Board of Directors, made up of Diego Alberto Vallarino, Carlos Ricardo Henríquez, Eduardo Jiménez and Nora Arosemena.
The arguments of the Prosecutor’s Office in the CA case are weakened with the bank transaction that the BNP made last year to save the works of line 2 of the Metro, and this lays bear the lack of legal basis to keep Francolini and Pastor detained, according to various lawyers.
The loan that Caja de Ahorros granted the Consortium HPC-Contratas-P&V was paid back with interests during the current Government of President Juan Carlos Varela.
Even the farms that had been placed as collateral were released.
In this case there are also other directors and managers with unfair precautionary measures.
In a recent court´s ruling of the Second Superior Court, refusing bail in favor of Francolini, the judges reiterated that the risk of the loan subject of the investigation was controllable, so there was no problem that the AC made losses.
It was also confirmed that in this case there was no economic damage and that this fact accounted for in the file with the statements of the Auditors of the CA itself.
Similar practices
The defense of Francolini clarified that if there is no financial loss to the Bank, which has had a moderate risk and loan rating was satisfactory, everything indicates that there was no crime.
Given these comparisons, lawyer and former prosecutor Neftalí Jaén said that the National Bank has engaged in the same practices that enables the banking business, just as CA did in due course.
On the other hand, in lawyer Silvio Guerra´s view, if the parameters of the Caja de Ahorros case are contratsted with the BNP and Odebrecht, we should conclude that this is the same situation.
"We hold the oponion that in the CA there was no crime, however, prosecutors and the Panamanian justice have argued otherwise, at least to order the pre-trial detention of various citizens without taking measures precautionary to others", he reaffirmed. 4
With this new revelation, Guerra believes that the Public Prosecutor's Office is yet put to another big test to accredit or discredit if there is or not selective justice.
"They ought to investigate, because if they don´t, they have to release Riccardo Francolini and everyone, immediately", he warned.
Meanwhile, Professor and lawyer Miguel Antonio Bernal said that at no time did the BNP have to step in as a kind of guarantor of Odebrecht in a contract that is under the figure of "turnkey".
In his view, they do this because they are receiving instructions from the Executive.
Prosecutor General Sterling, in this case, has issued the order to initiate the trial in the case of 16 people, including former executives and individuals who are not directly related to the CA.
The preliminary hearing of this case was set by the thirteenth Court, in charge of Alina Hubiedo, to take place from 27 to 29 March, having as alternate dates from 10 to 12 April.
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