State land given for free

PANAMA. A former general manager of La Caja de Ahorros, Eudoro Jaén Esquivel and the old Inter-oceanic Region Authority (ARI), and general administrator, Julio Ross Anguizola have been accused of transferring the title deeds of government land valued $1. 7 million for free. The State has been fighting since 2005 to regain control of the asset.

The process started when the limited company Colon Water Front Properties S.A. represented by Alfredo Arias Grimaldo and the ARI signed a purchase and sale contract to acquire a plot of 32,687.91 square meters in Colon worth $1.6 million.

All the paperwork was done according to the law and the only requisite pending to finalize the transaction between Colon Water Front and the ARI was to notarize the deeds and register the document at the Public Registry. Once this was done the ARI would be able to claim the money from Caja de Ahorros through a promise of payment letter, as the bank was giving the mortgage to the buyers.

However, although the transaction was in the final stages Jaen Esquivel and Ross Anguizola began to use dilatory tactics with the intention that the promissory letter would elapse, invalidating the contract and forcing the buyer to negotiate again.

The former Ari general administrator procrastinated in signing the title deeds and on the same day when the purchase and sale contract was published in the Official Gazette, he decided to consult low level bank employees about the validity of the promissory letter issued by Caja de Ahorros.

Meanwhile, the general manager of the bank requested more documents from Colon Water Front, although it already had given all the necessary paperwork for the mortgage. The company had to provide them before January 26, 2008, which was the day when the promisary letter lapsed.

The documentation requested was irrelevant to the loan and has to do more with how Colon Water Front was going to develop the bus terminal in Colon. The promisary letter expired on January 22 2005 and not on January 26 and the property was registered on January 24 after the it had lapsed. The land was transferred to Colon Water Front without it paying any money whatsoever.

The denouncement against Eudoro Jaen Esquivel and Julio Ross Anguizola for embezzlement was presented by Anti-Corruption Secretary, Fernando Nuñez Fabrega to the Public Ministry yesterday afternoon.