Previous Story
The great whistleblower involves Glas in the collection of kickbacks
Posted On 28 Sep 2017
Ecuadornews:
Odebrecht´s informer José Conceição Santos revealed from Brazil at least 15 names, in addition to the 18 that are already investigated in the Odebrecht bribes plot, revealed by the US Department of Justice in 2016.
He did it in almost four hours of video conference from a consulate of Ecuador in that country. Santos, considered by some defendant´s attorneys as the primary evidence element in this case. In addition to naming the people involved, he named the amounts, companies, and accounts benefited from the payment of kickbacks.
Parts of his story coincided with two elements that allowed the opening of the case. The alleged request of Ricardo Rivera, uncle of Vice President Jorge Glas, of 1% of the contracts Odebrecht signed with the State, and the amount the construction company would have paid to Rivera (about 16 million dollars).
The total of bribes amounts to 32.2 million, close to the 33.5 million mentioned by the US Department of Justice.
In Spanish, Santos said before the judge of the National Court Miguel Jurado that Glas knew the requests his uncle would have made in his name. And not only that. He recalled that he met with Glas at least three times a year at the request of Rivera, always in his office for security reasons and incognito.
In the presence of Santos, he called ministers and gave them instructions to comply with Odebrecht ´s orders and wrote the letters to ask for financing to Brazil.
He assured that even Glas asked for a million dollars for the 2014 election campaign. According to the informer, the relationship between uncle and nephew was close. “Jorge Glas and Ricardo Rivera are Siamese brothers, they feed and breathe through the same body, there is no difference,” he said.
Santos made it clear that he recorded the vice president in June 2014 to demonstrate he had access to Glas. “I have worked in more than ten countries, and I never had access to a vice president,” he said. (I)
Source: http://www.expreso.ec/
