A REQUEST  FOR 16 people to go to trial over  a controversial loan granted by the State owned Caja de Ahorros has been made by  First Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Tania Sterling.

The  loan was to the contractor in charge of the Amador Convention Center project.

In the request to a  judge  Sterling has charged Riccardo Francolini Arosemena, Ricardo Arango Pezet, Ricardo Chanis Correa, Anastacio Ruiz De Leon and Fernando Correa Jolly, former bank board members, with offenses against public administration.

Also charged are former bank officials Jayson Pastor and Rodrigo Arosemena Pino.

Francolini and Pastor are preventively detained at the headquarters of the national police in Ancón.

The Prosecutor also seeks corruption charges against Felipe Virzi, Jairzon Lemer Hurtado, Manuel Antonio Morales Diez, Tobías Gustavo Garrido Nicolu, Ricardo "Ricki" Calvo Latorraca, Claudio Poma Murialdo and Mauricio Ortiz Quesada, all linked to the consortium HPC-Contratos-P & V, which received the loan.

Sterling also seeks to prosecute West Valdés and Ivan Clare, former directors of the Financial Pacific (FP) brokerage,

Meanwhile, the prosecutor has  issued a provisional stay of proceedings in favor of Elyonor Samudio Avila, Voldy Wedemeyer Ortega, Eric Quintero Ysern, Luis Jafet Díaz, Luisa Sánchez de De la Hoy and Rolando López, all former bank officials.

In the request, the prosecutor said that Francolini acted as "judge and jury" in the management of the loan, and failed to defend the interests of the bank.

Martinelli links
A request for a variation of Francolini’s detenrion order has been rejected by a judge.

Ex-president Ricardo Martinelli’s name has surfaced at several stages of the investigation, and a number of the key accused were member of his innercircle. They and others have fled the country and face Interpol red alerts.