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 The reference to Martinelli as a co-conspirator, which has not
been previously reported, comes as the former president faces
unrelated allegations of corruption and misconduct in Panama –
accusations he has said are politically motivated.
Martinelli’s name came to light in the U.S. bribery case against
Vicente Garcia, a former executive at SAP, the German software
company. Garcia, 65, was sentenced to 22 months in prison on Dec. 16
by a U.S. court in the Northern District of California, after
pleading guilty to conspiring to bribe Panamanian officials to
secure contracts for SAP software.
In Judge Charles R. Breyer’s order on sentencing, he instructed
Garcia to avoid contact with “any co-conspirator in this case,”
naming Martinelli and six others, as a condition of his future
supervised release. That order was released publicly on Dec. 22,
before being sealed by the following day.
Martinelli has not been charged with any wrongdoing in Garcia’s
case. A U.S. attorney for Martinelli said the former president had
never met Garcia.
 An SAP spokesman said the company fired Garcia in April 2014 and is
cooperating in the ongoing investigation. The spokesman pointed out
that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which conducted a
parallel investigation, has said Garcia "circumvented SAP's internal
controls” to fund the bribe payments.
A U.S. Justice Department spokesman said the SAP investigation is
ongoing and declined to comment further.
SAP has not been charged.
People familiar with the case confirmed that whether Martinelli
received bribe payments in the scheme has been part of the Justice
Department’s investigation.
TARGETED THREE OFFICIALS
Garcia admitted using bribe payments to secure a software contract
to update technology for Panama’s social security agency.
The scheme, which ran from 2009 until 2013, won an SAP reseller a
$14.5 million contract. SAP itself received around $2.1 million in
software sales thanks to the bribes, according to court records.
An attorney for Martinelli in Panama, Rogelio Cruz, said there is no
proof in the Panama cases against the former president, who governed
the country from 2009-2014. “I have no doubt that there’s a
political ingredient in all this,” he said.
Cruz said he had not discussed with Martinelli the judge’s order
referring to Martinelli as a co-conspirator.
 A U.S.-based attorney for Martinelli, who asked not to be named,
said the former president "has no knowledge of [Garcia.] He has
never met him. He has never spoken to him, and doesn't know anything
about the contract or Garcia's role in it."
A contract of this kind, this attorney added, would not have reached
the president's desk. Martinelli moved to Miami several months ago,
and no U.S. law enforcement authorities have approached the
former-president on the issue, the attorney told Reuters.
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Lawyers for Garcia, did not respond to several requests for comment.
In court records, the government said Garcia and his unidentified
accomplices targeted three unnamed Panamanian officials with bribe
payments through fake invoices and sham consulting contracts in an
effort to win the deal.
The government named one of the officials as “Official C” and said
he was a “very senior" official who “had substantial influence over
the award of Panamanian government contracts.” Garcia tried to
influence that official through bribe payments to a “close
relative," the government said in court papers.
In a Dec. 10 memo to the court asking for a lenient sentence, Garcia
claimed Martinelli was that senior official. The family member was
Martinelli’s brother-in-law, Aaron “Roni” Mizrachi, who was paid a
“commission,” Garcia claimed.
Garcia said he was unsure whether the payments through Mizrachi
ultimately reached Martinelli. Garcia "viewed Mizrachi as a
gatekeeper who was leveraging his family relationship with President
Martinelli to obtain bribes for himself," he said. That record,
initially released through the federal court website, was later
removed from public view.
Mizrachi, left Panama several months ago, Cruz said. Reuters could
not reach Mizrachi for comment.
Martinelli’s name surfaced in the case as separate corruption
accusations against him continue to mount in Panama. The once
popular president, who spent billions of dollars on a public works
program is now facing six investigations over allegations that
include insider trading, abuse of public funds and taking bribes in
unrelated cases.
Earlier this month, Panama’s Supreme Court ordered his detention in
a case where he allegedly used public money to spy on more than 150
people illegally. He has not been formally charged.
A wealthy businessman before taking office in 2009, Martinelli now
resides in a lavish apartment building in Miami often featured in
Hollywood films and TV productions, according to public records and
media reports.
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