Prison awaits for Ramiro González, former Minister of Correa

Ecuadornews:

Ramiro González is one of the 16 officials of the previous government who is a fugitive. He is accused of influence peddling. The trial is suspended.

A year 10 months and 16 days after having completed functions, the former president of the Republic Rafael Correa and his government are still news, but for acts of corruption. While the Prosecutor’s Office continues to receive complaints, in the courts of justice some trials are progressing and others are suspended.

One of the latter is the one initiated against the former president of the Board of Directors of the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS) and former Minister of Industries of the previous regime, Ramiro González Jaramillo. He is prosecuted for influence peddling, a crime punishable by deprivation of liberty for between three and five years, according to Article 285 of the Organic Code of Comprehensive Criminal Law (COIP).

The other process, for alleged tax fraud, did not go beyond the investigation phase in the Office of the Prosecutor. The facts The 28 years of public life in which Ramiro González performed several and high functions were truncated at dawn on August 18, 2017. On that day the Office of the Prosecutor and the Police conducted simultaneous searches at 03:00, in Quito, Puerto Quito and Esmeraldas, where the former official had properties. In the capital, the uniformed entered the department of the IESS deputy located on González Suarez Avenue.

The former minister was not in this place, unlike his wife Carmen Gaybor, who was arrested. When the raids continued, the then Minister of the Interior, César Navas, indicated that Ramiro González had been alerted and that this allowed his escape. That is why he asked that “all the persons and institutions involved be asked to see if there was a leak of information”.

In as much, the authorities communicated to all the police units of the country so that they traced the ex-minister. Around 11:00, the attorney general, Carlos Baca, confirmed that during the investigations it was detected that “several properties” were in the name of González’s wife. According to the reports of the IESS advisor in the Internal Revenue Service (SRI), since 2009 the former minister paid $ 3,614.74 of tax on the exit of foreign currency.

While in 2012 he paid $ 14,005 of income tax. That was the highest value in the last 17 years. In turn, the investigations of the Prosecutor’s Office show that between 2012 and 2016 González received accreditations for $ 2.2 million. But he would have justified $ 391,168. That is, he would not have declared the receipt of $ 1.8 million.

According to the Prosecutor, the former president of the IESS was investigated for alleged tax fraud and his wife for possible unjustified private enrichment. Since that August 18, eight days after his 59th birthday, González is at large and a year has passed eight months and 21 days after his disappearance.

The legal process Based on the investigation of the Prosecutor’s Office, on December 12, 2017, the prison order against González was issued for the crime of influence peddling. On March 28, 2018, the Prosecutor’s Office issued an accusatory ruling against the former minister and seven others, but in his ruling Judge Paola Campaña dismissed and ordered the lifting of the precautionary measures against four of them.

On April 23, 2018, the trial against the former chairman of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS), for his alleged participation in the crime, was suspended for him, but not for the other three defendants.

The reason is that “he is acting as a fugitive,” said the judge of Criminal Guarantees. He said that up to that point it can be reached, due to his status as a fugitive. The former official, who is already on the list of the most wanted in Ecuador, was seen dining in a restaurant in Lima on August 10, 2018, according to a photograph that circulated on social networks.

That day allegedly was in the restaurant Isolina, in the sector of Barranco, one of the wealthiest in Lima. According to witnesses, one of the Ecuadorians who identified him approached him to complain, but González did not respond, he got up and left. Since that day, nothing has been heard of the exalt official. (I)

Source: https://www.eltelegrafo.com.ec/noticias/judicial/12/carcel-ramirogonzalez-iess-correa