14 years is the maximum grief for leash counsellors

Ecuadornews:

Prosecutor accused Pamela M. and Laura T. of real contest of infractions with bribery, influence peddling and illicit association. Instruction will last 90 days. A penalty of 14 years or more will be faced by the ex-advisors of the Rafael Correa government, Pamela M. and Laura T. Ambas will stay two more days in the Flagrancia Unit of Quito, before being sent to a provisional detention center.

Judge David Lasso received this Sunday, after a four-hour hearing, the request of the Prosecutor’s Office and made charges against both ex-employees for a real contest of infractions in the crimes of bribery, influence peddling and illicit association.

The Prosecutor opened the investigation, after a publication of the digital media Mil Hojas, which ensures that six multinational companies, including Odebrecht, financed the binomial Correa-Glas campaign between 2013 and 2014.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the two defendants would have managed and moved funds through an intricate system of raising money in cash and through a crossing of bills. In fact, at the hearing, prosecutor Ruth Amoroso delivered, among the evidences, some emails with the matter Recipe of Arroz Verde 502, which was the key that would be used for these transactions between ex-public officials and representatives of those transnationals.

That money, supposedly, entered the Alianza PAIS movement, in which Correa was president, and were used to finance his presidential campaign. But those amounts would not have been declared. For this reason, the Office of the Prosecutor considers that both defendants would be part of an alleged organization made up of public officials and private legal entities, which would have maintained contractual relations with the State. The links with multinationals Pamela M., ex-adviser of Correa, and Laura T., exasistente of the Presidency of the Republic, would be those who collected that income.

In one of the emails that the prosecutor delivered, As elements of conviction, there was a conversation between Pamela M., Laura T. and Geraldo Pereira de Souza, representative of the Odebrecht company in the country. That dialogue, according to the Office of the Prosecutor, would reflect a “close relationship between the three.”

The file also includes computer forensic expertise, reports from the Internal Revenue Service (SRI), a report on the migratory movements of Pamela M., which indicates that from 2008 to 2019 made 122 trips to Argentina, France, India , United States, China, Chile, among others. In fact, according to the police, Pamela M., 55, was arrested early on Saturday, May 4, when she expected to board a Copa Airlines plane bound for Mexico.

She was sent to the Office of the Prosecutor to give her testimony and then she arrived at the Flagrancy Unit. In possession of Pamela M. money was found in cash, both in dollars and in euros. Added there are more than $ 2,200 and 1,000 euros.

There was also a black laptop, a smartphone, three mobile phone chips and a hard disk, in addition to two notebooks, fragments of paper type sheet of paper minister with handwritten in black. Also stands three plastic supports with a legend that reads Bar Association of Guayas, priority pass, best doctors, in the name of the processed. Pamela M.’s husband, Jimmy S., is currently the president of the Guayas Bar Association. Gustavo García, attorney for Pamela M., said they will appeal the preventive detention of his client.

He pointed out that the primary source of the mails should be investigated and how he obtained the information. At the arraignment hearing held in the Flagrancia Unit, the prosecutor also referred to names that are revealed in the investigation of “Mil Hojas”, as Alexis Mera, former legal secretary of the Presidency; and the ex-ministers María de los Ángeles Duarte and Walter Solís.

The latter would be in Mexico, the country that Pamela M. Laura T. aspired to reach. administrative assistant of Pamela M. in the Presidency and in the Constitutional Court. She was arrested at 12:40 on Saturday, May 4 in Tanicuchi (Cotopaxi), 30 minutes from Latacunga, when she was traveling in a car, with her husband and two children. In his power, according to the police, they found his cell phone and a cell phone chip.

The prosecutor Diana Salazar arrived at the Flagrancia Unit after 10:00, however, did not want to refer to the subject. He attended the audience as a listener and at the end he left the garage. The Prosecutor’s Office searched four buildings in Quito and three in Guayaquil. Attorney Garcia said there could be more linked. 

3. The thread of contributions to PAIS goes beyond two detainees

The Office of the Prosecutor provides the Excel sheet of payments for companies such as Odebrecht. That document cites, among others, Alexis Mera and Viviana Bonilla.

In a frantic weekend, a new corruption investigation has been launched in Ecuador that points to the highest levels of Rafael Correa’s government. Yesterday, two ex-servants of the Presidency in the previous administration received preventive detention and charges for bribery, influence peddling and illicit association, in real contest of infractions, for having received and distributed among high officials money contributed for the PAIS Alliance campaign between 2013 and 2014 by large companies, which were state contractors, such as Odebrecht, Sinohydro, CWE, SK Engeneering & Construction, Telconet and Grupo Azul.

The previous investigation and the opening yesterday of the fiscal instruction -which will last 90 days- are based on a journalistic publication supported by an Excel sheet, under the name of Arroz Verde recipe, which details the payments, among others, to former Vice President Jorge Glas, the former legal secretary of the Presidency, Alexis Mera, to the first vice president of the Assembly, Viviana Bonilla, and the ex-minister María de los Ángeles Duarte and Walter Solís, who is on the run for another case. Among the elements of conviction presented by the Prosecutor’s Office to get Judge David Lasso to accept the preventive detention and open the instruction, there is a “printed Excel sheet of payment to Mr. Alexis Mera, Viviana Bonilla, Maria Duarte, Amelia Duarte”, which propagates suspicions about the contributions received for the PAIS Alliance campaign beyond the two already involved.

Also, the Office of the Prosecutor conducted seven raids between Quito and Guayaquil in the early hours of Saturday to Sunday. In the capital, two homes and two companies; and on the Coast, a house, a company and a law firm. Without specifying publicly the name of the same, the Prosecutor’s Office cites in its enumeration of elements of conviction before the judge the identification practiced in “a real estate of the company Sanrib Corporation” and of several of the “Copec SA company”. Following the logic of the Office of the Prosecutor, EXPRESO toured the headquarters of companies related to the former high officials cited in the report to verify where they were raided and where not.

The tour included the exteriors of the Romero Menéndez law firm, where Alexis Mera is listed as a member according to his website; to the Creacional company, owned by Vinicio Alvarado; to Christian Viteri’s office in the The Point building; and the headquarters of the College of Lawyers of Guayas, for the conjugal relationship between Pamela Martínez, one of the detainees, and the president of the school.

He is also mentioned by the Prosecutor’s Office, since his company Nexoglobal has as its main client between 2013 and 2015 Odebrecht and a manager of the Brazilian construction company, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, maintained such a “friendship” relationship with the exjueza of the Constitutional Court that came to organize him and give him a trip. Likewise, EXPRESO tried to contact Alexis Mera and José Serrano to corroborate information about their relationship with the case. However, they did not answer the phone.

Who did it was Christian Viteri. He said that if Pamela Martínez had mentioned his name it would be like an attempt to discredit him by the accusations against Corrism revealed in his previous stage as Assemblyman.

The defenses of the two defendants, the former Pamela Martínez and the ex-presidential candidate Laura Terán, questioned in their pleadings before the judge the fulfillment of the due process followed by the Prosecutor General’s Office to finalize the previous investigation in less than 24 hours and sustain the same in a journalistic publication.

Defense of the detainees “The due process was not respected” In the formulation of charges, which lasted more than four hours, the defenses of Pamela Martínez, exjueza of the Constitutional Court, and Laura Terán, former President of the Presidency during the government of Rafael Correa , arrested in Latacunga while she was traveling in her truck, questioned the respect for due process of the Prosecutor’s Office, which opened an investigation against they for the presumed campaign contributions to Alianza PAIS.

The detainees will be transferred in the next hours from the Flagrancia Unit, in the north center of Quito, to one of the detention centers that the judge determines. The judge’s decision will be appealed by Martínez’s defense. The lawyer Edgar Molina said that alleged crimes have been established on the basis of a journalistic report, and not with elements of conviction that the Prosecutor’s Office should present.

“The one who has not fulfilled the role has been the judge of Criminal Guarantees. It was he who had to take care that the necessary protocols are respected so that due process is observed and that has not been done, “said Gustavo García, who is also part of Martínez’s defense.

The lawyer Luis Muñoz, Laura Terán’s lawyer, has refused at all times to talk about the situation of his client. RRG Data The elements of conviction presented by the Prosecutor before the judge. – Excel sheet printed for payment to Mr. Alexis Mera, Viviana Bonilla, María Duarte, Amelia Duarte. – Publication of the Milhojas portal. – Postal photographic consignment. – Executive decrees of appointments. – Technical report: Expert CNML-CF-LCCF-Z9-INF. – Post office between Mr. De Souza and Mrs. Pamela Martínez. – Laura Terán emails to several people. – Post office of Mrs. Pamela Martínez. – Extended executive report of the SRI – Extended executive report NEXOGLOBAL SA. – Versions of the two detainees, Pamela Martínez and Laura Terán. And extension of Martinez’s version. – Identification of properties through informative part of Sanrib, which has contracts with the State. – Search of several buildings, especially of the company Copec SA, which was a beneficiary of state contracts. – UAFE report on Pamela Martínez (5 vehicles) and Laura Terán. – Martinez migratory movement (122 trips) to countries such as Brazil, Panama or Switzerland. And Terán activity with companies related to OdebrechT . (I)

Source: https://www.eltelegrafo.com.ec/noticias/judicial/12/pamelam-laurat-fiscalia