Robert Levy, judge for the Eastern District of New York denied the $4.5 bail million offered by Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares to obtain provisional freedom while the money laundering process related to bribes paid by Odebrecht advances. Ricardo Alberto Martinelli who was extradited from Guatemala on Friday, December 10, indicated through his lawyer Levy that he would plead guilty to one of the crimes for which he is being investigated.

The prosecution maintained there is a risk of flight, considering the background where he fled from the United States justice through the Bahamas in the company of his brother Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares. At the time they left the United States, they were detained in Guatemala and fought the extradition process. "They have access to financial resources and politically they have good connections in Panama, " said the judge. The bail package proposed by the defendant in his presentation is less solid than the bail package proposed by Luis Martinelli Linares and rejected by Judge Reymond Dearie, who   " fully agrees "that the bail package was insufficient, " he highlights. Another of the points given to Judge Levy by the prosecutor Alixandra Smith to deny the bail are: The defendant has a substantial and proven flight risk, The seriousness of the crimes charged and the overwhelming evidence that supports them, his previous actions to evade prosecution in the United States, Lack of ties to the United States, extensive financial resources and foreign political connections, and his status as a citizen of Panama, who does not extradite its citizens to the United States,. Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares must go before Judge Reymond Dearie on December 14 when he is expected to plead guilty to one of the charges.