Former Governor Richard Fifer will have to face a new oral trial and is only waiting for the date, after the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation managed to have the Second Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court annul the sentence of September 19 of 2022, issued by the Oral Trial Court of the province of Coclé.

In that hearing, the ex-governor of the province of Coclé was acquitted of the charges against him for the crime against the economic order, in the form of improper withholding of quotas to the detriment of the Social Security Fund and orders the holding of a new trial by a different Court of Oral Trial.

Javier Enrique Caraballo Salazar, Attorney General of the Nation, through the SPA Hearing No. 04 of January 32, 2023, recommended annulment of sentence 47 of 2022, and that therefore a new oral trial be ordered for the crime of improper retention of dues.

The hierarchical position that the ex-governor held in the companies, was obliged to remit capital to cover the payments of the employee-employer quota, from the Social Security Fund; however, it decided to retain it, ignoring the obligation to comply as legal representative of the companies, with the payments of the employer-employee contribution, causing damage of more than 6 million balboas to the Social Security Fund and to the workers from October 2013 to in 2014, retaining the quotas.

After the investigation phase and the intermediate phase, charges were filed by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office against the ex-governor for improper withholding of quotas described in article 241 of Chapter V, Title VII of the Second Book of the Penal Code.

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The oral trial hearing was held on August 30, September 2 and 5, 2022, where the former governor was acquitted of the charges against him.

The date for the new trial with the annulment of the sentence is awaited .