The Topic case removes dust from Odebrecht bribes

Ecuadornews:

Former Vice President Jorge Glas is in prison, serving a six-year sentence, for his involvement in the Odebrecht case. The sentence, not yet executed, marked a triumph for the Ecuadorian Justice in its fight against corruption, but since that December 13, 2017 there have been no great victories in the clean of irregularities. That same day, coinciding with the announcement of the sentence, a testimony that served to corroborate the judicial decision was revealed.

Luiz Mameri, former Vice President of Odebrecht for Latin America, had told the Brazilian authorities that the ‘number two’ in the Rafael Correa government received payments of 1% in exchange for the contracts obtained by the construction giant. It was a kind of “toll,” Mameri said, which was transferred through a company: Glory International. The newspaper El Universo agreed to the testimony, published it and this weekend has been resurrected with a video that collects the content of the statement revealed thirteen months ago.

Mameri’s assertions leave little room for interpretation on how bribery payments were executed in Ecuador. Recovered now, after reactivating the Topic case for money laundering, his words serve to remove the cobwebs that, at least in public opinion, began to corner the Odebrecht case. There are another 25 cases that were derived from the judicial process due to illicit association that are waiting for new results, under the protection of the information that was already in the hands of the authorities:

Open processes

1. The National Court ordered, in its ruling against Jorge Glas, that new lines of investigation be opened. There are at least 25 other cases derived from the Odebrecht case, but only a dozen have reached the training phase. In three cases there are convictions: for illegal collection of Saibank, for fraud by expert witness José Luis Fuentes and for concussion against Carlos Pólit and his son.

Topic Case

2.Of the 11 processes opened for money laundering, the one involving Ricardo Rivera, uncle of former Vice President Jorge Glas, the Telconet company and its founder Tomislav Topic, has been reactivated, following the agreement between the telecommunications entrepreneur and the Government to return 13.5 million received by Glory International. That company is the one used by Odebrecht, according to Mameri’s statement, to send the bribes to former Vice President Glas.

Registration of bribes

3. Thanks to the criminal cooperation with Brazil and the United States, the country’s authorities acceded to the Odebrecht bribery register. The Brazilian construction company had a server where it wrote down, under pseudonyms, who it paid for, how much, in exchange for what contract and through which company the operation was triangulated. In Ecuador, the code names “uncle”, “miami”, “bambi”, “teacher” or “cousins” appear and the projects of Manduriacu, Pascuales-Cuenca, Refinería del Pacífico are mentioned … Glory is mentioned again International.

Shortcut to the server

4. All information about bribes is hosted on a server called MyWebDay and on the Drousys mail system. Switzerland has a copy of it. Ecuador has requested criminal assistance to this country. For months, an agreement with the Swiss Institute of Basel was blocked, which would facilitate the success of such assistance. Finally, Ecuador signed with the institution in March 2018.

New information

5. Peru signed a preliminary cooperation agreement with Odebrecht in December in which the Brazilian company agrees to share details and evidence on the payment of bribes in exchange for reducing the amount with which it will have to repay the Peruvian Government to practically half of what which reached the damage: $ 182.5 million. It is pending ratification, but one of the conditions prohibits the Peruvian authorities from revealing or sharing the information delivered to other parties, unless they are subject to a similar agreement. (I)

Source: https://www.expreso.ec/actualidad/casotopic-soborno-odebrecht-jorgeglas-pagos-AC2598750