PANAMA'S SCANDALS EXPOSE ITS CORRUPT PRINCELINGS; SHOULD THEY JOIN THEIR PARENTS IN PRISON ?

Alberto Diamond Martinelli (the son)

I am sure that you have read all about China's Princelings, the sons and daughters of famous Chinese  government leaders, who mysteriously end up with millions of dollars, huge companies, and global holdings derived from back room deals, bribes and kickbacks, illegally received by their prominent parents, who are holding senior positions in the Communist Party. Well, Panama also has its share of obscenely wealthy young men and women, all of whom accumulated their wealth due their parents' corruption, and some of them are surfacing, since their parents are now under the microscope of Anti-Corruption Prosecutors.

The photograph above is Alberto Diamond Martinelli, the young son of the disgraced fugitive former Superintendent of Banking, Alberto Diamond R. The ex-Superintendent,  an accountant who got his job from his relative, Ex-President Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal, though totally unqualified for the position, is a fugitive from justice, partly because he followed Martinelli's orders to ignore the flood of dirty money coming into Panama's banks, and partly because he took bribes to close his eyes to money laundering and terrorist financing.

Superintendent Diamond (father) 

While Diamond is gone with the wind, his son remains in Panama. Though only a young banker, he has inexplicably acquired millions of dollars, the origin of which is unknown. How can such a young man be so wealthy, on a banker's salary, you ask ? You can thank his corrupt father, who saw to it that his young"princeling" son was funneled a sizable portion of that dirty money coming in from banks who wanted the Superintendent to be deaf, dumb & blind in his job. Diamond Martinelli, a multi-millionaire, also owns substantial real estate, which is unheard of for someone in their twenties.

Where did all the father's dirty money go, you ask ? The son is a banker at the Panama branch of a prominent Costa Rican bank, and Panamanian investigators would do well to examine all international wire transfers that bank officer Alberto Diamond Martinelli handled at that branch.

Will Panama's prosecutors see past the father, and investigate the son's ill-gotten gains ? Will they also charge him with money laundering ? We cannot say, but we hope that compliance officers start to take a hard look at any children of Panamanian officials, present or past, or of any other PEPs, for they have been hiding in plain sight long enough.

A final note: we will be looking at other Panamanian Princelings in future articles, starting with the wealthy children of ex-President Ricardo Martinelli, Ricardo, Luis and Carolina; Watch for it.

Ricardo Martinelli Linares

Luis Enrique Martinelli