The sons of former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, who were sentenced Friday to three years in prison for laundering millions of dollars in bribes, acted at the direction of their father, who asked them to open bank accounts to deposit the money, attorneys for both before sentencing.
During a lengthy hearing in Brooklyn's Eastern District Court, attorneys for Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares, 40, and Ricardo Martinelli Linares, 42, said they simply followed their father's instructions and soon realized that it was dirty money.
Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares, left, and Ricardo Martinelli Linares, sons of former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, in a cell in Guatemala City on July 7, 2020. Moises Castillo / AP
"The children are paying for the sins of the father. They committed this crime because their father asked them to," said Sean Hecker, the lawyer for Ricardo Martinelli Linares.
The Martinelli Linares brothers attended the last hearing dressed in prison uniform and sports shoes, and upon hearing the sentence they reacted serenely, although they had previously shown some emotion when talking about their relatives.
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Judge Raymond Dearie sentenced them after the United States accused them of conspiring to launder approximately $28 million that the Brazilian company Odebrecht paid in bribes to a high-ranking Panamanian official who is a close relative of the defendants, but who has not been identified by The prosecutors.
The brothers' lawyers, however, have clearly identified him as their father, the former president.
According to prosecutors, the brothers served as "intermediaries" between Odebrecht and the Panamanian official to benefit the latter with bribes.
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The senior official held his position from 2009 to 2014, according to the prosecution.
Ricardo Martinelli was president of Panama in the same period.
His administration was characterized by rapid economic growth marred by allegations of corruption.
In the moments prior to the reading of the sentence, Luis Enrique's lawyer, James Mac Govern, stated that the two brothers had acted "by orders of the father" and acknowledged before the magistrate that they did not act well, although he said in his defense that they had cooperated "in a certain way".
Mac Govern himself said that the father was "an excessively dominant figure" and that they were "two frightened children" who did what he ordered without question.
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The Martinelli Linares brothers, extradited from Guatemala last year, claimed that they should be released because they have already served two years in prison, are collaborating with US authorities and have each paid 19 million dollars in bribes to US authorities.
In addition, they face corruption charges for the same case in Panama, just like their father.
The prosecutor's office in New York had requested a minimum of nine years for the children of the former president while they asked to be released.
Since both have already been in prison for 23 months, they could be released in less than a year for good behavior.
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Both brothers spoke before the judge issued his sentence and asked the Panamanian people and his family for forgiveness.
Dressed in a khaki prison uniform, Luis Enrique Martinelli spoke of when his father won the presidency of Panama and put his trust in him to run the family's supermarket chain.
At that time, around 2009, the former president reportedly asked his children to open the accounts to deposit the Odebrecht money.
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"I didn't know that my promotion (in the supermarket chain) came with certain conditions. When I realized it, it was already too late. There was no going back. I didn't know how to say 'no'. I regret that a lot," said Martinelli Linares.
The accounts were opened in Switzerland and the brothers made efforts to hide the origin of the money, prosecutors say.
Because there were dollar transactions that went through US accounts, the case is being handled in New York.
On Friday, the spokesman for former President Martinelli, Luis Eduardo Camacho, issued a statement on Twitter in which he said that the defense of both brothers obtained "according to the circumstances, a favorable result, far removed from the excessive claims of the prosecutors." .
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"Every person who has children will fully understand that for his children a father is willing to carry whatever burden is necessary for their well-being," he wrote.
"Former President Martinelli and his family want Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares and Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares to be able to reunite with his family in Panama as soon as possible."
The construction company Odebrecht pleaded guilty in 2016 in the eastern district of New York to being involved in an international bribery and money laundering scandal.
In 2018, both Martinelli brothers began to meet voluntarily with the US authorities.
In June 2020, as their negotiations continued to limit the charges against them, they left the United States.
The prosecution assures that they fled without prior notice on a boat to the Bahamas and that, after failing to enter Panama due to closures caused by the pandemic, they were arrested in Guatemala.
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The father of both brothers and former president was arrested in Miami in 2017 and later extradited to his country to face accusations of alleged espionage against politicians and journalists, of which he was acquitted for the second time last year.
The former president aspires to compete for power again in 2024.
The Odebrecht case, however, is still latent in Panama and the hearing of this process will take place between July and next August.
Precisely the Public Ministry reported on Friday that the audience in New York were prosecutors for International Affairs and Anti-Corruption.
With information from AP and EFE