A MAN CURRENTLY behind bars in Switzerland may soon be a key witness in the investigation of alleged links of the Ricardo Martinelli family to  the Brazilian corruption giant Odebrecht and the Lavo Jato (car wash) bribery scandal.

Fernando Migliaccio da Silva is an executive of Odebrecht  who  has  been held in Switzerland since February 18. Brazil’s Federal Police  have  arrest warrants for his connection to Lava Jato.

InPanama  he controlled bank accounts in Credicorp Bank, on behalf of South Constructora Internacional, SA, a Panamanian company to which received  more than $40 million  presumably dirty money, to pay coimas (bribes) through companies under the Odebrecht cumbrella l, such as Smith & Nash Engineering.

Migliaccio da Silva is key in investigations of laundering schemes moved by Odebrecht through complex structures to pay  millions in bribes to employees of Petrobras, some already convicted of corruption in Brazil.

The arrest of Migliaccio da Silva may also be momentous on another plane, and finally details of how the money went through the accounts that Odebrecht kept on behalf of other companies in local banks, until  now  one of the best kept secrets in Panama reports La Prensa.

The Brazilian Federal Police also identified Migliaccio da Silva as the person who controlled the money deposited in Swiss accounts in PKB PrivateBank, Banque Audi, SA, Barclays Bank, SA, as well as International Constructora South and Klienfeld Services Ltd., companies  "demonstrably used by the Odebrecht Group to pay undue advantages to Brazilian and foreign public officials, such as former Secretary of Transportation of the Federal Government of Argentina," saythe police.

The central role of Migliaccio da Silva "in laundering ill-gotten values Odebrecht is clear," says the police, who are also after

Brazilian businessman Olivio Rodrigues Junior and Luiz Eduardo Soares da Rocha. The latter two would be indirect customers of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, according to documents published by  German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.