Confidentiality law hides purchase of spying equipment

The trace of the acquisition of the Italian equipment with which the Martinelli government spied with during his mandate was hidden under the confidentiality of a reform law of an amendment to the public procurement law.

The business was backed by the Law 41 of 2008, which allowed the Government to acquire products and services for the security of citizens and the State, without passing a public tender or even asking for authorization for a direct contract.

According to the norm, since the price of the acquisition to the italian company Hacking Team was less than $3 million, it simply passed through the dispatch of the ministry of the President.

The payment to the company, whose data was leaked on the Internet on Sunday (up to 400 GB of confidential information which includes the Panamanian file), were triangulated through three societies which intervened as intermediaries in the purchase of the service.

According to the public report, in the red of the bill being charged by the company and its clients, Panama paid at least three bills for up to 750 thousand euros (not dollars, as was wrongly published in Tuesday’s edition).

Hacking Team emitted their bills to the Panamanian State between 2011 and 2013 through Theola Ltd and Leyte Ltd, both companies based in Belize and with common directives: Hugo Ardilla and Teofilo Homsany Cohen, an expert in information security.

The first was emitted in the name of Theola Ltd, for an amount of 680 thousand euros, ‘for the purchase of the license and update of the Remote Control System DaVinci’, capable of using a telephone as a microphone, as a camera or as a spying agent without its owner, the ‘target’, knowing.

To protect itself from this type of technology and knowing the system was working on Panamanian ground, some politics consulted by La Estrella de Panamá reported that meanwhile they had ‘sensitive’ personal conversations they would disactivate their mobile phones by taking out the battery.

The system acquired by Martinelli allowed for the follow up of ‘40 objectives’ during the period in which it was executed. In 2012, Hacking team charge the company Theola Ltd another 50 thousand for the license and update of the system for the Security Council of Panama. Gustavo Perez, called to court for the illegal wiretapping of opposition, was then in charge of the department.

A year later, in ‘Advanced Training in Milan’, the spying company charged Panama another 20 thousand euros. The collection was made through the society Leyte Ltd., when Alejandro Garuz was the head of the Security Council.

The equipment with the software of the Italian company went missing from the Security Council right before Ricardo Martinelli left office and, consequently, Las Garzas Palace.

The curious notification was made by Hugo Ardilla to the specialist Alex Velasco, the adviser that Hacking Team assigned for their business with the Martinelli government. Ardilla is the representative of Robotec, one of the companies which was in charge of executing the espionage system for Panama.

“Our best hope is that no report develops regarding this,” responded Eric Rabe, Hacking Team chief of marketing, to Velasco in an email divulged online.

But it was a wish that went unanswered: the hack made to the database of the company this Sunday has brought to light about their ‘legitimate’ business in this and other countries, and new data from the policy of indiscriminate spying of Martinelli.

The documents indicated that Hacking Team pretended to follow their business with Panama and gain 140 thousand euros in 2014 to renovate their license.

The calculations of this newspaper point to the first purchase being made during the time of the former minister Demetrio Papadimitriu. The rest of the transactions were made when Roberto Henríquez was head of the ministry.

La Estrella de Panama tried getting in contact with the former officials, who didn’t respond to their respective telephones.

A source of the past government, who prefered to remain anonymous, sustained that these types of purchases were exclusively of the interest of the former president Martinelli.

“No one else had the power. The Security Council was his toy, his playing field,” the source said.

From the township of Bella Vista, the society KBH Aviation invoiced to Hacking Team 450 thousand euros, against Mexico’s armada, another one of their clients.

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DEBATE

Controversy in Mexico for contracts with Hacking Team

Mexico this week started with the sour news that in Latin America, their country was the one with the most contracts with the service of Hacking Team to spy its citizens.

Eleven entities and local governments spent $6.6 million in purchases to the italian espionage company, based on the database infringed this Sunday.

However, like in Panama with Theola Ltd. and Leyte Ltd., Mexico made their contracts with Hacking Team through intermediary companies.

Mexico spent 25% more than Italy did. The Colombian Police, the Intelligence Service of Ecuador and the United States also subscribed to the service of Hacking Team.

The International Forum for the Freedom of Expression deplored yesterday the opacity of how the process of the purchases were made, the disproportionality of the work of surveillance, and urged the assemblies of the involved countries to discuss and reform the laws that govern in this activity.

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FIGURES INVOLVED

Three leaders had the Security Council while 'DaVinci' operated

LA ESTRELLA DE PANAMÁRICARDO MARTINELLI: According to political sources, he was the royal head of the Security Council.

LA ESTRELLA DE PANAMÁJULIO MOLTÓ: Lead the Security Council between July 201 and March 2012, before passing to the Police.

LA ESTRELLA DE PANAMÁGUSTAVO PÉREZ: Was in the Security Council between March and September of 2012, before going to the Vice-Ministry of Government.

LA ESTRELLA DE PANAMÁALEJANDRO GARUZ: Directed the Security Council between September 2012 and June 2012, after leaving the Vice-Ministry of Government.

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