Geraldo de Souza, who worked in the financial area of Odebrecht in Ecuador, admitted that he lied in Ecuador and that he knew that the envelopes he gave to Pamela Martínez contained money.
Geraldo de Souza, former financial director of Odebrecht in Ecuador, gave his testimony in the trial against Carlos Pólit this April 11, 2024.
From Miami, Florida. The third day of the trial against former comptroller Carlos Pólit began this April 11, 2024 with the testimony of Geraldo de Souza, who worked in the financial area of Odebrecht in Ecuador, along with José Conceição Santos.
When questioned by prosecutor Michael Berger, De Souza assured that he had a flash memory in which he stored information about his work. Inside it, he had a folder called ‘ Miami ‘, in which he kept documents of payments to Carlos Pólit. This was the code that was used in the Odebrecht system for the former controller.
De Souza confirmed that ‘Miami’ was Carlos Pólit’s code. In addition, he added that Alexis Mera’s was ‘Miranda’.
Inside said Souza folder he had a spreadsheet in which he recorded the payments for ‘Miami’, in 2012 and 2013. The Brazilian was writing down the payments with the date, amount and project to which they corresponded. He said that he helped him keep track of what they paid together with Conceição Santos.
As he explained, the information contained therein demonstrates the amounts of bribes that had been paid to Pólit for four projects that Odebrecht had in Ecuador.
- Daule-Vinces Transfer: USD 1.7 million.
- Pacific Refinery: USD 1.7 million.
- La Esperanza Aqueduct: USD 2.9 million.
- Pascuales-Cuenca pipeline: USD 3.7 million.
In this spreadsheet there is a record of payments with balances still pending as of December 2013. However, de Souza said there were payments before and after what was recorded in this spreadsheet. This information was already made public in previous days of the trial, as Conceição Santos said he had paid Pólit USD 12 million between 2010 and 2016.
The Prosecutor’s Office showed two other spreadsheets with payments to ‘ Miami ‘. Both have different periods, since they were adjusted and changed with the progress of payments.
In one of them, a payment for USD 210,000 is recorded with the date April 2, 2014 corresponding to the Pascuales-Cuenca pipeline. This payment has a note that says ‘delivered in GYE‘ and, according to the witness, it was a cash delivery and was made through a company.
Two other payments caught the attention of prosecutors: both are for USD 500,000 paid in April 2014 and correspond to the La Esperanza aqueduct.
The first has a note that says “sent by A”, which according to de Souza, means it was a transfer handled by Odebrecht’s Structured Operations Division.
The second has a note “sent by D”. According to the witness, this means that it was a transaction handled by Diacelec, a supplier to the Brazilian construction company.
De Souza admitted to having lied in Ecuador
The cross-examination of De Souza began around 11:00 in Miami. In response to questions from lawyer Howard Srebnick, part of Pólit’s defense, the Brazilian admitted to having lied in his testimony in Ecuador in the Bribery case.
De Souza is the one who would have delivered envelopes of money to Pamela Martínez, then advisor to President Rafael Correa. But in his testimony in Ecuador, he had said that he did not know what the envelopes contained.
Now, in this process in the United States, he admitted that he lied and that he did know that the envelopes contained money and that the delivery was made at the request of Conceição Santos.
De Souza said that he lied because he did not have an agreement with the Ecuadorian government and he was afraid that he would be prosecuted in the country. He, until now, has not been prosecuted in Ecuador, Brazil or the United States.
Now he does have an agreement with the United States, so he said he is not afraid to tell the truth.
