Draft bill 141.

Summary.

The draft bill establishes rules for investigating assets linked to offenses against Public Administration, related money laundering, and other conduct that causes financial loss to the State. It defines seized and confiscated assets, confiscation, recovery, restitution, and good-faith third parties. It would supplement the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, in accordance with the Political Constitution and treaties ratified by Panama. It leaves the burden of proof with the Public Prosecutor's Office (Ministerio Público) and requires a final judicial decision for permanent deprivation of property.

It amends the Criminal Code to extend confiscation to transformed assets, proceeds, commingled assets, and assets of equivalent value, subject to proof of their connection to the offense, a hearing for third parties, and priority for restitution. It revises the penalties for receiving and offering improper benefits, using confidential information, disclosing protected identities, and unjustified enrichment. It establishes aggravating factors related to the loss caused, the funds affected, the office held, and the structures used to conceal assets.

It adds asset investigations from the earliest proceedings to the Criminal Procedure Code. It permits expert examinations and audits by public entities, public universities, police agencies, and the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (Instituto de Medicina Legal y Ciencias Forenses), with coordination as appropriate with the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic (Contraloría General de la República). Provisional seizure requires prior judicial authorization, except in urgent cases subject to judicial review within the following 48 hours. The Public Prosecutor's Office would hold the assets through a specialized unit; any early sale would require judicial authorization.

It regulates interception of communications, undercover operations, controlled deliveries, controlled purchases, surveillance and tracking, and seizure of electronic data. It makes these techniques subject to necessity, proportionality, and judicial oversight, and permits information to be used in another related case with judicial authorization. The prosecutor or defense could request that a case be declared complex, allowing reasoned extensions of deadlines and an appeal with suspensive effect.

It defines a cooperating person and makes benefits conditional on acknowledging participation, surrendering or restoring assets, and cooperating. It provides for a reduced or substituted sentence, suspension, and, following prior and full reparation, no filing of charges; the agreement requires judicial approval. Proposed Article 220-A requires agreements to include asset-related obligations and protects third-party rights. It allows anonymous reports or reports made with the informant's identity kept confidential, subject to independent corroboration. It provides protection according to risk and a fine of 1,000 to 25,000 balboas for retaliation.

It authorizes international cooperation, joint teams, spontaneous information exchange, and requests to secure and recover assets abroad. It allocates confiscated State assets to the affected entity and other confiscated assets to a National Treasury (Tesoro Nacional) account for social investment, in accordance with the General State Budget Law. The Ministry of Economy and Finance (Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas) would publish an annual report, and citizen oversight would be provided. It also amends limitation periods, bars certain subsequent activities by former judges and prosecutors, regulates the appearance and replacement of expert witnesses, and requires due diligence records to be updated and retained under Law 23 of 2015.

The final rules address temporal application, budget appropriations, and implementing regulations by the Executive Branch (Órgano Ejecutivo) and the Public Prosecutor's Office. Based on its content, the draft bill concerns the Judicial Branch (Órgano Judicial), security forces, affected public entities, financial and non-financial obliged entities, forensic professionals, and civil society organizations.