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Odebrecht used public works insurance to finance bribes
Posted On 27 Jun 2019
Quito –
Odebrecht found in insurance a method to divert funds from public works and finance their illicit payments, without attracting the attention of the authorities. He used this mechanism at least with two policies of the Pascuales Cuenca pipeline and the Daule Vinces transfer.
Both policies add up to $ 1.1 million. They were signed, first, with a national insurer and, later, with a reinsurer of Barbados. This yielded its policy to a Panamanian financier who fed the accounts that Odebrecht used for its illicit payments. This was one of the three ways in which Odebrecht diverted public works funds. (See scheme).
The documents of this plot are included in the filtering of the Drousys system, which Odebrecht used to register its bribes. The archives, obtained by La Posta, were revealed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ, in English), in collaboration with EL UNIVERSO.
In December 2014, the Brazilian construction company signed two policies with Ecuatoriano Suiza. They were additional contracts to cover the deductible of previous policies that Odebrecht had acquired from other insurers for the Pascuales Cuenca and Daule Vinces projects.
Ecuadorian Switzerland reinsured with another company to share the risk. The reinsurance was made with Ocean Re, registered in Barbados, which has a lower risk rating to Ecuatoriano Suiza.
It assumed 0.1% of the risk and the rest was assigned to Ocean Re. The contract between the insurer and the reinsurer has an annex that was signed jointly with Odebrecht, the insured. In this annex, which is in English, they agreed that Odebrecht would directly understand Ocean Re in the event of a loss.
Bribery Division
The Drousys system also includes a retrocession agreement, whereby Ocean Re gave 100% of the risk to the Panamanian financier Nashville Financial Corp. The agreement was also signed by Odebrecht, as insured.
The business is unusual, said some brokers and insurance lawyers. The client does not know with whom the risk is reinsured, because that is a power of each insurer.
Nashville is related to the Odebrecht Structured Operations Department, which administered the illicit payments. According to the bank statements, which are in the filtration, Nashville deposited a total of $ 169 million to the companies that paid bribes on behalf of the Brazilian. Most went to Klienfeld Services Ltd., which paid most of the bribes in Ecuador.
Of the $ 1.1 million that these two policies cost, according to the invoices delivered by Ecuatoriano Suiza, it was left with a commission of $ 71,000 and Ocean Re with $ 33,000. The rest, almost $ 1 million, was transferred to Nashville.
These two policies were made together with a third that cost $ 1.6 million. They signed on the same day and reinsured with Ocean Re. However, the leak does not show if in the latter case there was an agreement between Ocean Re and Nashville.
Ecuadorian Switzerland signed six policies with Odebrecht between 2013 and 2014. Four of them were reinsured with Ocean Re and the other two, with Americana de Seguros, of Venezuela.
The lawyer of Ecuadorian Switzerland, Eduardo Carmigniani, said that the insurer does not know Ocean Re, but that the deal was made with them because insurance broker Asertec proposed it that way. “It came in the package that Asertec brought … that the policy is issued … with that reinsurer,” he said. Questioned about the rating of Ocean Re, Carmigniani revealed that “there was a statement from Odebrecht that it would not collect the policy if the reinsurer had not paid first.”
Rafael Correa is indicated in four research reports of the CPCCS
For his part, Pablo Cevallos, general secretary of Asertec, said that he did participate as an intermediary in the policies between Odebrecht and Ecuadorian Switzerland, but that he never recommended Ocean Re, since he is not even qualified to do intermediation in reinsurance.
Ocean Re refused to give an interview. Via e-mail he said: “We can not give information to third parties without the express authorization of the regulator or the reinsured.”
The amounts of the contracts
Pascuales Cuenca
The initial amount of the construction of the Pascuales Cuenca pipeline was $ 370 million and ended at $ 602 million. It had an increase of 63%.
Daule Vinces
The Daule Vinces transfer contract had an original price of $ 191 million. Its final cost amounted to $ 289 million. It had an increase of 51%.
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