Businessman Ángel Rondón, the principal accused in the US$92 million Odebrecht bribery case, began his defense on Monday, 1 April 2019, before Supreme Court of Justice judge Francisco Ortega Polanco. Rondón has always maintained that the money he received from Odebrecht was actually payment for his services to the company and was not for bribes to be handed over to Dominican government officials as part of his lobby services to secure government contract work.
According to the Public Prosecution Office, Odebrecht has confirmed that they transferred US$136,507,159 from their offshore companies, Klienfeld Services LTD, Constructora Internacional del Sur, Innovation Research Engineering and Development LTD, Fasttracker Global Trading LTD and Trident Inter Trading LTD, to the companies owned by Rondón Rijo, who was their business partner in the Dominican Republic.
Rondón denies this money ever arrived in his accounts and says that before he was contracted by Odebrecht in 2002, he had representation contracts with other companies for around US$17 million.
As defense lawyers for the others accused in the US$92 million Odebrecht case, Rondón defense lawyers based their defense on the weaknesses of the accusations case presented by the Attorney General prosecutors. Lawyer Miguel Minier says that the prosecutors nowhere have presented an audit showing that the 17 works built by Odebrecht have been overvalued to prove the fraud.
The defense of the accused Angel Rondón told Supreme Court of Justice judge Francisco Ortega Polanco that the public prosecution did not establish in the accusation the amounts of the supposed bribes that Rondón had paid in representation of Odebrecht.
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Al Momento
Listin Diario
Diario Libre
2 April 2019