The retrial of the US$92 million Odebrecht bribes case is postponed for Monday, 21 December 2020 to give time for Brazilian witness, lawyer Mauricio Dantas Bezerra to appear in person. Dantas Bezerra had requested to participate in the trial via Zoom, yet this was not accepted by the defendants.
In 2016, in a New York City court, Odebrecht admitted to paying US$92 million in bribes to expedite contract work in the Dominican Republic. Dantas Bezerra was the Brazilian construction company executive who would sign a deal with the Attorney General Office in 2017 committing Odebrecht to pay US$184 million for the damages caused to the Dominican state. Former Attorney General Jean Alain Rodriguez negotiated the deal for the Dominican Republic. It established the Dominican justice would not prosecute the Brazilian construction company executives. A clause indicated that if the Brazilian company defaulted on the payment schedule, the deal could be called off. The Brazilian company is in arrears on the payments.
The Justice Department has announced a line-up of 28 witnesses for the hearing that would have begun on 8 December 2020. The trial date is postponed after the defense argued the order of the witnesses needs to be preserved. The former Attorney General prosecuted the case, but the Supreme Court that was hearing the case ordered it restart, this time at an ordinary court.
The defendants in the case are: Angel Rondon, lawyer Conrado Pittaluga, former Minister of Public Works Victor Díaz Rúa, former senator Tommy Galán, former National Water and Aqueducts (Inapa) director, Juan Roberto Rodríguez and the former president of the Senate, Andrés Bautista.
The group is accused of committing bribery crimes, prevarication, money laundering, illicit enrichment, falsification of deeds and money laundering, and complicity with government officials.
Judges Esmirna Gisselle Méndez, Tania Yunes and Jissel Naranjo of the First Collegiate Court of the National District are hearing the case.
Dante Bezerra is first on the list of witnesses requested by state prosecutors, now under Attorney General Miriam Germán Brito. In 2017, when she was the presiding judge of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, Germán Brito had warned her predecessor, Jean Alain Rodríguez, that he was not adequately preparing the case for the Dominican state.
The prosecution now under Attorney General Germán Brito has also requested the testimony of Marcelo Hofke, general manager of Odebrecht in the Dominican Republic; María Álvarez de Maio, analyst of Criminal Investigations of the Justice Department (Public Ministry); Carmen Álvarez de Maio, María Eugenia Batista and Dignari Rodoli.
In a new development on the case, Odebrecht lobbyist in the Dominican Republic, Angel Rondón filed a complaint with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for violation of the right to defense, fundamental guarantees and due process.
In 2017, the United States government named Angel Rondon under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. According to the Magnitsky Act ruling on Rondón:
“Angel Rondon Rijo (Rondon) is a politically connected businessman and lobbyist in the Dominican Republic who funneled money from Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction company, to Dominican officials, who in turn awarded Odebrecht projects to build highways, dams, and other projects. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Odebrecht is a Brazil-based global construction conglomerate that has pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and agreed to a criminal fine of $4.5 billion. In 2017, Rondon was arrested by Dominican authorities and charged with corruption for the bribes paid by Odebrecht.”
The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act imposes sanctions for serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world and provides for sanctions on actors engaged in these malign activities.
Read more in Spanish:
El Caribe
N Digital
Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act
10 December 2020