This Thursday, August 5, the preliminary hearing of the Blue Apple case against 51 accused of money laundering, corruption of officials, illicit association and against the public faith began.

At the facilities of the Third Criminal Settlement Court, which were transferred to the Balboa Theater, the team of prosecutors representing the Public Ministry arrived early in the morning.

The hearing began with the allegations by the Public Ministry.

" The preliminary hearing is a qualification hearing, that is, it will only be verified whether the punishable act of crimes existed that are corruption of public officials, money laundering, illicit association to commit a crime, and crimes against public faith and law. linkage of the people that obviously the Prosecutor's Office at the time requested the call to trial, "explained the prosecutor Aurelio Vásquez.

At this hearing, the Public Ministry (MP) calls for a trial in the tax hearing for 51 people, who were charged with corruption of public officials, money laundering, illicit association to commit a crime and against the public faith.

This case called Blue Apple Services or "BAS", began its investigation in September 2017 for the improper payment to public officials through public limited companies.

The superior prosecutor Aurelio Vásquez, represents the Public Ministry in this judicial action.

In this preliminary hearing, the media were restricted from entering the Balboa Theater, because their presence was not contemplated, and they were kept outside. Nor were they provided with any virtual system to follow the audience.

It should be noted that the preliminary hearing scheduled for this Monday, April 19, 2021, in the “Blue Apple” case, was suspended due to the absence of several defense attorneys who did not appear at the act that was taking place in the courtroom of the Second Court. Superior of Justice, presided over by Judge Baloisa Mequínez, of the Third Court for Criminal Proceedings.

What is the Blue Apple Case about?

The investigation began in September 2017 when improper payment to public officials through public limited companies was suspected.

Among the companies, which the investigation revealed at the time, were: Blue Apple Services Inc., Dover Agency Inc., Blanch International Inc., Nightmare Overseas Corp. and Corporación Libuma SA, and the following companies are related: Constructora Conalvias SA , Constructora Meco SA, Constructora Rodsa SA, Constructora Bagatrac SA, Ingenería REC SA, GS Contractors (Grupo Corporativo GS SA) and Concept y Espacios SA

The investigation revealed that the undue payments had to be deposited with the corporation "Blue Apple Services", which, through five bank accounts in three different banks in the town, managed to launder 40 million dollars, of which 32 million have been recovered.

It seeks to hold the accused responsible for the crimes of corruption, money laundering and illicit association to commit a crime, it was learned that among the accused there is a former bank official, a private lawyer, 3 former public officials, and 7 businessmen; In addition, 5 effective collaboration agreements have been made, of which 3 have been validated by the jurisdictional authority.

The prosecution assures that it has been shown that former public officials of the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Housing, demanded from businessmen in the construction sector, who maintained contracts awarded with the State for the period 2011 to 2012, a percentage related to the value of the work, in exchange for the speeding up of the administrative procedures for the execution of the work, as well as the disbursements of money from the State in favor of the respective contractor, if not to do so, the collection procedures for the progress of the work would be difficult, among other affectations.

On the crime of corruption, the penalty for public servants is 2-4 and 3-6 years for individuals. The businessmen, as individuals, have already given an investigation and have provided evidence on the circumstances of the manner, time and place in which the events occurred, have identified who the money was for, how the crime was carried out, who was part of the criminal organization, the use of false invoices to give the appearance of legality to the money, the destination of the profits, in addition to returning the illicit money.

While in relation to the crime of money laundering, whose penalty is 5-12 years in prison, 21 people are being processed, of which 3 are subject to preventive detention and the prosecution will expand the formulation of charges to other people. While the crime of illicit association to commit a crime, whose penalty is 6 to 12 years in prison when the purpose is Money Laundering, 3 people are being processed, of which 2 are subject to preventive detention.

In the middle of the investigation, international assistance was processed to the United States, China, Switzerland, the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and Hong Kong, for the recovery of these assets transferred by Panamanian companies, among which have been identified: Dejaf Investment Corp. , Treasure Islands Development, SA, Quadrille Management, Corp., Jiu Shun International Co. Ltd., Energy Corporate Ltd., HB Engineering Corp., and Nightmare Overseas, Corp. itself.