Odebrecht must pay more than US$ 916,000 for arrears in Panama

A court of Panama approved on Tuesday to apply a delinquency rate of 5%, equivalent to more than US$ 916,000, to the Brazilian company Odebrecht, for not paying the annual fee of the US$ 220 million fine that was imposed on it in 2017 after the scandal of bribery in that country.

The court made the decision at a hearing in which it stated that the companies Norberto Odebrecht Construction Company of Panama SA and Construction Norberto Odebrecht SA (CNO SA)failed to pay the annual fine of US$ 18,333,333 for 2022, reported the Public Ministry (MP, Prosecutor’s Office).

With the delinquency rate of 5%, the company will now have to pay around US$ 19.25 million, an amount that will have to be consigned to the National Treasury.

Odebrecht committed in 2017 to the Panamanian justice system to pay a fine of US$ 220 million within 12 years for the corruption cases that it maintains in the country. So far, the company has paid some US$ 58.36 million.

The judge scheduled another hearing for next July 10 for the companies to provide financial information and propose payment options for the next installments.

“It was established by the compliance court to access the request made by the MP regarding the new retention orders for the year 2022 with the credits that these companies maintain in favor of the projects that they have carried out to the State”, said the senior Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, Anilú Batista.

The Prosecutor’s Office reported in a statement that it also requested to order the withholding of credits for projects valued at 19 million dollars to make “against the payment of what is owed”.

These projects would be with the Ministry of Housing and Territorial Reordering (MIVIOT) for more than US$16 million and the Panama Metro, for US$2 million.

Odrebecht starred in the biggest corruption scandal in the history of Panama, with former presidents, former ministers and relatives of these involved. In total, 36 defendants will face a trial scheduled to begin next August.