What Happened
Panama’s Supreme Court of Justice is moving forward with the second trial tied to Odebrecht bribery payments, now in the stage where both sides present the evidence they plan to use in court. No date has been set for the hearing.
The case involves four defendants who have not yet been tried: former President Juan Carlos Varela, former Public Works Minister Jaime Ford, and brothers Ricardo Alberto and Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares. Because all four are principal or alternate deputies in the Central American Parliament, the Constitution requires that they be prosecuted by the Supreme Court.
The court decided to merge the separate files opened against each defendant into a single case.
The Judges Assigned
The full bench designated magistrate María Eugenia López Arias as the judge of guarantees and magistrate Maribel Cornejo as the fiscal for the proceeding. The case will be heard in the Superior Courtroom for the Liquidation of Criminal Cases.
The process remains at the evidence-admission stage, a key step before trial begins. That phase determines what documents, testimony and foreign cooperation records will be considered by the court.
Why Ford Is Included
Ford’s connection to the Odebrecht scheme stems from testimony given by Jorge Espino, who cooperated with anticorruption prosecutors and said he received money from the Brazilian construction company through Westfall Holding, S.A., a company with an account in Andorra controlled by the former minister.
The file also includes testimony from former Odebrecht executive Luiz Eduardo Da Rocha Soares, who said payments were made to Ford through transfers to Westfall Holding. Internal references in the company’s structured operations office allegedly identified those funds with the nickname “Explorer.”
Ford already has a separate conviction for money laundering in the Blue Apple corruption case, which involved bribes paid during the administration of Ricardo Martinelli. In that case, he received an 80-month prison sentence and a fine of $11.4 million.
The Martinelli Brothers and Varela
Ricardo Alberto and Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares were already extradited, prosecuted, tried and jailed in the United States after admitting before Judge Richard Dearie in Brooklyn that they conspired to launder up to $28 million in Odebrecht bribes through the U.S. financial system. They said they acted on their father’s instructions.
The evidence now before Panama’s court includes the Brooklyn court’s sentence, which was sent to the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office and incorporated into the case file. The records describe transfers made by Odebrecht between 2009 and 2015 using shell companies such as Klinfeld Services LTD, Constructora Internacional del Sur, S.A., Select Engineering Consulting and Services Inc., Aeon Group, Baxley Assets Inc., Hadar Assets Inc., Odira Holding, Innovation Research Engineering and Development and Trident Inter.
Swiss authorities also provided information showing payments to Kadair Investment Ltd. from companies run by Odebrecht operators, with amounts ranging from $1.5 million to $3.1 million.
For Varela, the investigation centers on money transferred to accounts linked to V-Tech and Poseidón Enterprises, both controlled by Jaime Lasso, who collected donations for the Panameñista Party campaign. Those funds were then moved to the Don James Foundation before reaching the final beneficiary, according to the case.
Why the Case Matters
The hearing is one of the most closely watched corruption proceedings in Panama because it brings together a former president, a former minister and two politically connected lawmakers in a single prosecution. The case also shows how Panamanian courts continue to rely on foreign cooperation, banking records and prior guilty pleas in the long-running Odebrecht scandal.
Ford, Varela and the Martinelli brothers remain central figures in one of the country’s most significant corruption investigations, with the Supreme Court now tasked with deciding which evidence will shape the trial ahead.