Businessman Angel Rondón, who visited the Attorney General Office on Wednesday, 11 January 2017 to respond to questions in a session lasting from 11am until after midnight, denies receiving any bribe money from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht for distribution to Dominican government officials. Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez said that when questioned on 6 January 2017, Marcelo Hofke, Odebrecht’s general manager the country, mentioned Rondón as the contact person for the distribution of the bribe money to Dominican government officials.
The revelation comes as the attorney general began investigations into the case on the heels of the New York court sentence that ruled that Odebrecht had spent US$92 million in bribes in return for securing US$163 million worth of work contracts from the Dominican government.
Shortly after the remarks made by Jean-Alain Rodríguez on Angel Rondón, his lawyer Robert Valdez denied that his client Marcelo Hofke had made the comment, as reported in Acento.
Accompanied by his lawyers José Antonio Delgado, José Antonio Columna and Alberto Abreu, Rondón was questioned by Rodríguez and the administrative anti-corruption director, Laura Guerrero Pelletier. As reported in El Caribe, a newspaper owned by the Estrella group media company, Rondón said: “I now have to prove I did not receive the money.”
Interviewed on Cuentas Claras on Thursday, 11 January 2017, 95.7FM, Rondón said he received around US$92 million in payment for his lobby services for the company to secure contract work. He said he would sue Odebrecht if the company says that it had given him money to bribe government officials or legislators. Rondón said he has been working with the Dominican government since 2001 under the Salvador Jorge Blanco government and has been paid fees for his successful securing of contract work payments, including the installation of the San Pedro de Macoris floating power plant and the Mitsubishi plant.
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El Caribe
Acento
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12 January 2017
