Miami’s ‘Scarface’ Pad Has New Resident: A Billionaire Ex-President in Exile
- Panama ex-president says court probes are a political vendetta
- `We put Panama on the map,' Ricardo Martinelli boasts
Just outside downtown Miami, in a luxury condo building made famous by the 1980s hits “Scarface” and “Miami Vice,” a billionaire ex-president is holed up in exile.
Ricardo Martinelli -- scion of Panamanian landholders and an ex-Citigroup banker -- was Latin America’s most popular president a few years ago, a leader who was just as likely to make headlines for helping his country win an investment-grade rating as he was for his lavish personal spending and extravagant parties. Yet as Panama’s Supreme Court was opening probes earlier this year into his role in alleged phone-tapping and corruption scandals that drained millions from government coffers, Martinelli skipped town. A separate investigation is now underway in crisis-torn Brazil, home to a company that won concessions for mega-projects in Panama during Martinelli’s 2009-2014 tenure, and another was carried out in Italy.