$8 million bail

$8 million bail

Ernesto Chong Coronado, allegedly the manager of the Panamanian financial affairs of one David Murcia Guzmán, is charged with money laundering in Panama and was recently granted release on bail of $8 million. It's the highest bail ever set in Panama. Murcia is jailed in Colombia on accusations of running a massive Ponzi scheme and wanted by US authorities on charges of drug money laundering.

Theoretically there is no bail on a drug-related charge in Panama, but prosecutors here are investigating a many-headed Murcia scandal that includes tales of pyramid scams, political corruption and money laundering, with specific drug-related charges yet to be formally filed. One of the factors driving Chong's bail so high is that a court had earlier imposed travel restrictions on him, yet he took off to Miami for a business trip.

The Murcia scandal includes allegations by Murcia that he bankrolled the recent PRD presidential and mayoral campaigns in Panama, and also the campaign to amend the Colombian constitution so as to allow President Álvaro Uribe to seek a third term. The PRD and Uribe deny all of that, but there are certain bits of circumstantial evidence and some witnesses whose tales tend to corroborate Murcia's versions.

In Colombia, Murcia's dealings with Uribe's two sons and many politicians of Uribe's political faction have mainly been "explained" rather than denied. The same applies to meetings between Murcia and key PRD activists.

The key bit of unpublished evidence here is a Sheraton Hotel security video recording. It would either show Bobby Velásquez leaving Murcia's suite with a suitcase (which was allegedly full of cash and which at least three witnesses say that he did); show Bobby leaving without a suitcase, which would tend to discredit allegations that the PRD campaign received underworld financing; or turn up "missing" or "deleted," which would be lead many Panamanians to conclude that Murcia did give money to the PRD and that Attorney General Ana Matilde Gómez is likely involved in a politically motivated cover-up of the crime.

Photo by José F. Ponce

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