During the hearing, the judge legalized the apprehension, accepted the charges for a crime against public faith, and did not go easy: he ordered preventive detention, stating that releasing him could jeopardize the investigation. This case did not come out of nowhere. A man was provisionally detained for his alleged involvement in a fraud with tax credits against the State, using the General Directorate of Revenue (DGI). The investigation being carried out by the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office points to a scheme where non-existent tax credits would have been fabricated, all tied to irregular resolutions for the purchase and installation of tax equipment. In good Panamanian style: poorly made papers, approved as if nothing, to collect money that was not due. The case is moving within five criminal proceedings, all connected to each other. It is part of the “Etax 2.0” operation, an investigation that seeks to dismantle a presumed network that played fast and loose with the tax system, altering tax credits and causing direct damage to the State's coffers. Before this case, two former officials and two private individuals, one of them a businessman, had already been detained, all pointed to as pieces of the same gear. The defenses have appealed and the hearings were set for November 2025, but the Prosecutor's Office indicated that the file remains open.
