Prosecutor’s office has 5 open inquiries in the Odebrecht case

Ecuadornews:

To date there are also three trials with sentence, one in the trial stage, one on appeal and another in cassation. It is ruled out to take versions to exdirectivos of the constructor.

On the 21st of this month, two and a half years have passed since the revelation of the scheme of bribes of the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, carried out by the Department of Justice of the United States (USA).

In Ecuador, the ex officio investigation for the crime of bribery began on December 22, 2016 by order of the then prosecutor Galo Chiriboga. This is because, according to the disclosure, between 2007 and 2016, Odebrecht had paid $ 33.5 million in bribes to public officials and Ecuadorian businessmen to obtain contracts for works.

The first criminal assistance for the case was requested from the United States on December 29, 2016, and by the beginning of February 2017, Brazil already had a similar one in its hands. On May 11 of that year, Chiriboga was replaced by Carlos Baca, who obtained criminal assistance from Colombia, Spain, Andorra, Panama, Switzerland, Barbados, Mexico and China to advance the investigations.

Up to December 2017, the State Attorney General’s Office registered 26 cases opened in the corruption case of Odebrecht. Not half of these cases passed the pre-investigation phase. Some that had a date for a hearing to formulate charges never materialized, such as the file for money laundering that had to be sustained against Ricardo R., uncle of former Vice President Jorge G., and others.

The same happened with the tax fraud, announced against the construction company. The current situation To date, 11 processes are being processed due to the corruption plot of the Brazilian construction company in Ecuador.

According to official data provided by the state attorney general Diana Salazar, of the 11, five are under investigation, a phase that by law is reserved; three already have a sentence; one is in the appeal phase; another in cassation and the last in trial stage.

Of those that are investigated, the one is against Carlos P. Y. (Capaya) and others for the crime of money laundering. Three are for alleged bribery in the cases: Manduriacu; La Esperanza and Daule Vinces project, while for the Pacific Refinery the crime that is investigated is embezzlement.

The three prosecutions that have reached sentencing are: by illicit association, in those who are sentenced to 6 years in prison the former vice-president Jorge G .; his uncle, Ricardo R., and others. It is currently expected that an appeal will be processed.

The second with sentence is for the crime of concussion against the former State Comptroller Carlos P., who was sentenced to six years in prison and John P., three years. And the third trial with sentence is for money laundering for which he was sentenced to five years in prison the former Minister Alecksey M. and others. Regarding the case that is appealing, Ramiro C., Gustavo M. and Vladimir S. are involved in the laundering of assets.

The process in the cassation phase is also for money laundering, against Diego C. and José T. Finally, it is in trial stage for the crime of money laundering against Édgar A., ​​Elvira I., José A., Juan B., Myriam C., Gladys C., and as legal entities Diacelec SA and Conacero. Mameri will not render version In February of this year 2019, the then general prosecutor, Ruth Palacios, and the Anticorruption Secretary of the Government, Iván Granda, traveled to Brazil to gather new information about the Odebrecht case.

On March 6, at a joint press conference they reported that the investigation has been unified and that the prosecutor of each case has access to all the documents because Brazil lifted the clause that prevented them from sharing the evidence and including it in other files.

Granda said that unifying the investigation processes will allow to understand how the Brazilian firm operated. A second goal of the trip was to obtain the versions of Luiz Mameri and José Conceição Santos, former directors of the Odebrecht company. On this subject, Prosecutor Palacios explained that her statements will be taken “soon”.

The diligence will be made through videoconference and the 11 prosecutors who handle the files will be present. However, for the current prosecutor Diana Salazar, this is no longer necessary because “everything is in the testimony of José Conceição Santos”. At your discretion, you should deepen the internal investigation of the facts that were recorded here and their stakeholders. (I)

Source: https://www.eltelegrafo.com.ec/noticias/judicial/12/fiscalia-indagaciones-abiertas-caso-odebrecht