The plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice accepted requests by defendants in the Odebrecht vs. Dominican state bribes case and will now only be hearing the case of senator Tommy Galán. The case was moved to be heard by one of the four Penal Chambers of the Supreme Court of Justice. Galán is the only legislator accused of receiving bribes for approval of Odebrecht contract work in the country.
The Supreme Court of Justice ordered that the five other defendant cases be sent to be heard in first instance courts. In addition to Tommy Galán, the other defendants in the Odebrechts bribes case are: Ángel Rondón, Andrés Bautista, Víctor Díaz Rúa, Conrado Pittaluga, and Roberto Rodríguez.
The recent decision by the Supreme Court of Justice means the Odebrecht bribery case practically starts all over again. The plenary said it was abandoning the broad jurisprudence of the dragged out case to guarantee the opportunity for appeals against the decisions for the other members. The reading of the resolution is scheduled for 28 January 2020.
On 21 June 2019, Supreme Court Special Investigating Judge Francisco Ortega subjected the group of six people to trial on charges of having received and paid bribes from the construction company Norberto Odebrecht. When presenting the charges, the judge said that corruption cases never expire, leaving open the possibility at this point the defendants could be discharged but later the cases reopened, or that in the future others could be added to the case.
According to documents released on 21 December 2016 by the US Department of Justice, Odebrecht executives confessed to having paid US$788 million to officials from 10 countries in Latin America and two in Africa to obtain million-dollar contracts with governments. In the Dominican Republic, starting in 2001, Odebrecht acknowledged having made US$92 million in bribes to obtain 17 contracts for the construction of highways, dams and a thermoelectric plant. One of the main players later sentenced to jail in Brazil had worked as strategic advisor to President Danilo Medina on his two election campaigns.
The company agreed with the Attorney General Office to pay a fine of US$184 million over an eight-year period. Of this, only a first payment has been received.
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18 December 2019