Former Panama vice-president, Felipe Pipo Virzi, facing criminal charges in multiple cases once again wriggled free of his day in court on Tuesday, December 12 when The Eighteenth Criminal Court suspended a preliminary hearing, involving 12 people.

The process cover s the loan granted by the Caja de Ahorros  State Savings Bank (CA) for the alleged construction of an Amador convention center.

It was adjourned because a writ of habeas corpus presented by Virzi is pending response. After being photographed in pyjamas in company with other Ricardo Martinelli insiders in the grounds of El Renacer prison, Virzi's latest lawyer managed to talk a judge into releasing him from preventive detention. It was the second time he got the key to the door. Previously when moved to house arrest he was charged with another offense involving a real estate transaction.

Tuesday’s hearing was rescheduled for  January 16.

In this case, the Public Ministry is investigating alleged money laundering in the granting of the $9 million loan to the HPC-Contratas P & V consortium.

The loan was to be used in the construction of the Convention Center, tendered by the last government, but the monies were diverted to accounts in the Financial Pacific (FP)  brokerage, now liquidated.

Virzi and 11 other people are charged including the general and assistant managers, the board of directors of the CA chaired by Riccardo Francolini in the five-year period 2009-2014-; the founders of FP -West Valdés and Iván Clare-, and the merchant Ricardo Ricki Calvo, among others.

In November, the lawyers of Virzi, Valentín Mora and Alfredo Vallarino,

filed habeas corpus in favor of their clients- detained in El Renacer.