Panama's Comptroller on Corruption and Money Laundering

The Comptroller General of Panama, Aníbal Bolo Flores, stated that one must be very careful, as one cannot be both judge and party. He indicated that the Comptroller's Office neither condemns nor judges anyone, it simply presents the evidence so that the Public Ministry can proceed with its work with that information. Flores was again critical of the banks and announced that "here we have to touch a lot of people. There are some cases that occurred during the government of Juan Carlos Varela that we are investigating." Flores assured that these businessmen will face the full force of the law because, according to the comptroller, "they are helping to launder capital that belongs to Panamanians." "To all those businessmen who are involved in this, I have to say that they are helping to launder capital and public money, because none of these people can justify paying rent of $4,000 or $5,000 when their salary was that amount," Flores warned on Telemetro Reporta. The comptroller has been in this country for many decades, and no one knew where to look. He announced that they are analyzing what the law allows and if he can go as far as the administration of President Juan Carlos Varela. "I think this is much bigger than what people suspect," Flores said. According to Flores, "the average Panamanian on the street has to change or we will lose the country." illicit enrichment is the person who lives there (in the properties) and they have no way to justify how they pay a rent of $5,000 or $4,000 when that was their salary," he reiterated. "The audacity was very great," Aníbal Bolo Flores summarized what has been provisionally revealed by the investigations carried out by the General Comptroller's Office of the Republic into the handling of public funds during the administration of the Democratic Revolutionary Party led by Laurentino Cortizo. "The audacity was very great, I am surprised every day by what I am finding and seeing from people that one supposed to be very correct and very decent," Flores said when asked about the investigations being carried out by the Comptroller's Office. He lamented that the local banking sector is strict with the "common and ordinary" citizen, however, "one sees these people with important accounts in the banks and the banks don't ask anything. There is no justification for why these famous people live there." "We are looking at the jurisprudence. Flores said that this legislative initiative presented by the Attorney General Luis Gómez, which sought to have a company investigate the assets of individuals, "clashes with the Constitution." In the comptroller's opinion, the Public Ministry is doing its job and he acknowledged that both institutions have "the same personnel limitations." He lamented that some businessmen have "these people as tenants" and that they cannot justify a rent of 4 or 5 thousand dollars. "We are just scratching the surface here." Let's see what the law allows us, how far we can go. He assured that both are "coordinating actions to prioritize the most important cases and that is what we are doing." "The national banking sector has to do its part to clean up this country." He recalled that there must be a check and balance, since in his opinion, a single institution cannot have so much power, exemplifying with the Comptroller's Office itself, which has a certain legal framework to investigate and then delivers its results to the Public Ministry for it to handle the processes and take them to the courts. Flores announced that what has been seen so far is only "the tip of the iceberg" and what will come will be deeper, in addition to which, to date, funds amounting to "more than 40 million dollars" have been secured. "That is, when one sees businessmen, they are laundering capital." He assured that in the last five years the Financial Analysis Unit (UAF) "was non-existent", but that now "it is working very well, it is doing its job as it should have been done for a long time," Flores expressed, lamenting that institutions "slept for the last 5 years, including the oversight of public goods." Flores believes that they will have "to step on some toes" in reference to the people who would be involved in cases of alleged corruption. "It pains me, as a Panamanian, to see what I am seeing. Regarding what has been uncovered so far, Flores stated that it is only "the tip of the iceberg, but what is underwater is much bigger."