BAIL SCAM

Houses for freedom

06-12-2009 | LINETT LYNCH

llynch@laestrella.com.pa

Panama Star The main problem the State has about using houses as guarantees in bail arrangements is that it does not check the true market value of the property and on several occasions the house is worth less than the bail fixed by the judge.

In order to accept a property as bail guarantee the person needs to produce a bank guarantee certificate with the value of the house, which is understood to be double the amount asked by the judge.

However, the law is not specific that the house used as guarantee should have double the value of the bail imposed by the judge.

According to a lawyer expert in the subject, the consigning of bail is a great business, because the courts often ask only for 20 percent of the value,

“The person on bail will only have problems if the courts decide to check if the value of the properties correspond to the value of the bail,” said the lawyer.

In the Ernesto Chong’s case the value of the properties he put as guarantee had a value of $4.2 million, instead of $8 million. This could be another embarrassing episode for the Jutice system.