The sentencing of Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares will no longer be on May 13, as was announced last December. Now it will be on May 20, in the same hearing that was already scheduled to communicate the sentence of his brother Luis Enrique. Both are arrested in Brooklyn for conspiring to launder bribes paid by the construction company Odebecht.

Judge Richard Dearie of the Eastern District Court of New York announced the decision on Friday, April 15. Previously, Dearie rejected a request from the brothers to advance the hearing and hold it in the week beginning April 25

Martinelli’s two children remain in the federal detention center in Brooklyn, without bail.

Luis Enrique, 40, and Ricardo Alberto, 42, pleaded guilty on December 2 and 14, 2021, respectively, to one count of conspiracy to launder $28 million in bribes from Odebrecht, for the benefit of a "high official of the government of Panama”, between the years 2010 to 2014.

The name of the "senior official" has not been released, but it is known that he is a "close relative" of Ricardo Alberto and Luis Enrique reports La Prensa.