A CONTRAVERSIAL 20 year-multi-million dollar contract with a company linked to members of the circle of power of former President Ricardo Martinelli was declared dead by Panama’s cabinet council on Wednesday,  October 22..
The cabinet approved a resolution granting the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) to void the contract with Vertikal Corporation, Inc.,
Vertikal had a 20-year concession that allowed the use of 4.5 acres of seafloor with bank of river in the wetland Bay of Panama, but the AMP found that the company did not provide the guarantees and policies risks, and did not have operating permits.
The company’s legal representative was Lucas De Leon, an employee Virzi & Btesh a real estate group, owned by Gabriel Btesh and Felipe Pipo Virzi.
De Leon, an employee and member of the project division of Btesh & Virzi, agreed to invest $ 35 million to supply fuel to aircraft using the airport of Tocumen.
The relationship with Martinelli Btesh and Virzi is well known says La Prensa. Both entrepreneurs benefited from multi-million dollar hydro contracts and are members of the "zero circle" of the former president. The AMP ex-administrator Roberto Linares managed to grant the concession within three weeks of the end of the Martinelli administration.