The main person accused in the US$92 million Odebrecht bribes case, Angel Rondón stated on 29 March 2021 that there is no proof that could tie him to giving bribes to the government officials on trial.
Rondón was the commercial representative of the firm in the Dominican Republic during the Leonel Fernandez and Danilo Medina governments. He complained that the Anti-Corruption Prosecution Agency (Pepca) is accusing him of bribing legislators and government officials to expedite Odebrecht contracting when in the case the officials that approved the loans have not been incriminated. He questioned that there is not a legal advisor included in the case even when the contracts are first drafted in the Presidency before being sent to Congress for approval.
Among the contracts being discussed are those for the construction of the Samaná aqueduct, the Río-Jarabacoa road, the Coral highway, the Pinalito and Palomino dams, the Boulevard Turístico del Este in Punta Cana, the Duarte road corridor in Santo Domingo and the Punta Catalina thermoelectric coal-fired plant, among others.
Meanwhile, TV investigative journalist Alicia Ortega on Monday, 29 March 2021 again aired the findings of her travels in Brazil where she reviewed documentation on corruption to which the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has had access to. Ortega is the Dominican representative in the ICIJ investigative journalism group. Ortega found additional evidence to that presented in the New York court case that has yet to be followed up by the local prosecutors in the case.
Recently, the judges hearing the cases did not accept the incorporating of evidence from the New York court where the Brazilian company admitted the paying of US$92 million to Dominican officials, nor the leniency agreement signed with former Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez, on the technicality that these were deposited in foreign languages.
The case against the six that remain incriminated is to resume on 5 April 2021.
Follow the story:
Diario Libre
El Informe con Alicia Ortega
DR1 News
30 March 2021