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Regional workshop specializing in the negotiation of early resolution agreements in Panama, Colombia and Peru

 

Panama, February 3, 2022. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, through the project "Corporate Accountability of Businesses for Corruption and Money Laundering Offenses in Panama, Colombia and Peru", held the Specialized Regional Workshop on the Negotiation of Early Settlement Agreements, on February 2 and 3, 2022.

The opening ceremony was attended by Alison Cross, Minister Counselor of the British Embassy in Panama; Melissa M. Flynn, Director of Programs and Operations of UNODC ROPAN, guests from cooperation agencies of the United States of America, Ireland and United Kingdom and the Project coordinators: Helmut Flores (Panama), Fabian Espejo (Colombia) and Walter Hoflich (Peru).

"We offer this workshop considering the great challenge for the authorities in the region to address a significant number of criminal investigations related to the execution of corruption and money laundering crimes committed through complex corporate structures that are used by those who, to hide their real identity, create or make use of legal entities as fronts, circumventing preventive controls and leaving in their wake a grim perception of impunity as far as the administration of justice is concerned," said Melissa M. Flynn, Director of Programs and Operations of UNODC ROPAN.

The modules of this training, which was attended by more than 120 officials, were:

1.           Types of agreements contemplated in the current regulations, as alternative mechanisms for early resolution of processes in corruption and money laundering crimes, by Eduar Alirio Calderón Muñoz, Specialized Director against Corruption of the Attorney General's Office; Edwin Juárez, Senior Anti-Corruption Prosecutor of the Senior Anti-Corruption Discharge Prosecutor's Office of the Attorney General's Office (Panama) and Octaviano Omar Tello Rosales, Senior National Prosecutor Coordinator of the Specialized Prosecutor's Offices for Corruption Crimes against Public Officials in Peru.

 

2.           The role of the intervening parties in the negotiation of agreements, and the participation of the legal entity in the process, whose speakers were Amanda Elena Cetina Ussa, Prosecutor 43 of the Specialized Anti-Money Laundering Directorate (Colombia); Ramiro Esquivel, UNODC Consultant, prosecutor and former Prosecutor (Panama) and Javier Pacheco Palacios, Public Prosecutor Specialized in Corruption Crimes in Peru.

 

3.           Negotiation, stages to reach an agreement: procedural moment for its presentation, withdrawal, signatories, participation of the victim in the negotiation and rejection, topic presented by Santiago López Zuluaga, Delegate Superintendent of Economic and Corporate Affairs of the Superintendence of Corporations of Colombia; Adrián Hernández, Judge of Guarantees (Panama) and Juan Carlos Sánchez, specialized criminal judge of Peru.

 

4.           Good practices in the negotiation of agreements in crimes of corruption and money laundering through legal persons, by Anilú Batista, Senior Prosecutor of the Special Anticorruption Superior Prosecutor's Office (Panama); Antonio Arévalo Castillo, Deputy Prosecutor of the third office of the supra provincial corporate Prosecutor's Office specialized in crimes of corruption of officials (Peru) and Jorge Andrés Carreño Corredor, Fourth Criminal Judge of the Specialized Circuit of the Judicial Branch of the Public Power (Colombia).

The figure of negotiation of early resolution agreements favors the principle of procedural economy until the discovery of the truth in a more timely manner and allows a prompt resolution of both administrative and criminal cases, since it avoids going through all the stages of the process, However, care must be taken to ensure that the interests and fundamental rights of the parties, who waive their constitutional right to be heard and tried in an oral and public trial in which their guilt is proven, as well as those of the victims and society in general, are not violated. 

This activity was made possible thanks to funding from the United Kingdom.