The name of Rafael Sabonge entered this Monday in the list of former officials of Laurentino Cortizo’s government affected by precautionary measures regarding his assets.
The Comptroller General of the Republic ordered the preventive seizure of property, funds, vehicles and other assets linked to the former Minister of Public Works for up to $704,452.61, an amount that the institution itself still defines as preliminary.
The decision is contained in Resolution No. 2766-2026-DNAJ/MP, dated September 8. Six days later, the Comptroller’s Office made the measure public and explained that it arose from preliminary evaluations carried out by the National Directorate of Investigations and Forensic Audit.
The statement, however, does not detail what specific operation, contract or discovery produced the amount set against Sabonge, who directed the Ministry of Public Works between 2019 and 2024. The entity limited itself to pointing out that it seeks to protect the State’s assets while the corresponding actions continue.
The case does not appear isolated
The Comptroller’s Office has been using the powers to freeze assets more frequently for months while asset and forensic audits progress. Just last week he reported to the National Assembly that the preventive seizures and seizures derived from his investigations are already around $50 million. Since January 2025, in addition, the entity has evacuated 615 of the 1,091 audit requests that it found pending at the beginning of the current administration.
A chain of former officials
One of the first high-profile cases was that of former Vice President José Gabriel Carrizo. In October 2025, the Comptroller’s Office ordered the seizure of bank accounts, vehicles and properties worth up to $1.3 million, following an administrative investigation for alleged unjustified enrichment. The file later reached the criminal sphere.
Then the former director of the Social Security Fund Enrique Lau Cortés appeared. A resolution of November 2025 ordered assets of up to $2.9 million to be seized. The audit was related to losses due to expired medications and supplies, excessive purchases and movements of funds during his administration, according to documents reviewed by La Estrella de Panamá.
In March of this year, the Comptroller’s Office did the same with the former administrator of the Panama Maritime Authority Noriel Araúz. The measure reached $1.3 million, after an asset audit established a difference between resources of known origin and the financial movements examined.
Two months later, a similar measure reached Nadia Del Río, former institutional executive director of the Ministry of the Presidency. The seized assets are around $576 thousand. In August, a judge maintained the measures while the corresponding path to review the actions of the Comptroller’s Office was defined.
The former deputy director of the DGI Maritza Ureña González joined this sequence. The Comptroller’s Office ordered the preventive seizure of assets up to $432,152.83, after an audit detected this difference between the identified resources and the financial movements analyzed.
Another relevant file is that of the former director of the DGI Publio De Gracia. In this case, it was the Court of Accounts, based on an audit by the Comptroller’s Office, that ordered the seizure of assets worth up to $16.3 million within a process related to tax actions linked to FCC Construction. De Gracia has rejected the accusations and defended the legality of his decisions.
Sabonge is now the newest name.
Cautions do not in themselves constitute a conviction nor do they determine criminal liability. They are preventive measures designed to prevent certain assets from leaving the reach of the State while investigations and possible property processes progress.
But the map that the audits are leaving already reaches several of the figures who held sensitive positions during the five-year period 2019-2024.
