In addition to the criminal actions initiated before the prosecutor’s office on October 22, 2025 for the non-existent guarantee, issued by a non-existent company, EuroCommerce, which added several other scam attempts with the renewal of the same guarantee, manipulated and with serious date errors, to which was added the lack of a guarantee for the reimbursement of the 30 million dollars already paid by Uruguay, which had been presented by the Redbrigde company and was accepted by the authorities of the previous Ministry of Defense. during the previous government of Luis Lacalle Pou. Great promoter of this purchase, supported at all costs by his Minister of Defense Javier García.
The Ministry accepted a “Terms and Conditions” document (a binder or insurance commitment), at the end of 2024, which allowed the contract to be administratively “unlocked” to move to the payment phase.
With the Redbridge documentation already validated by the Ministry’s legal services (under the management of Armando Castaingdebat), the disbursement of 8.22 billion euros was carried out, which became effective in mid-January 2025.
The “lightning operation”: It was carried out by opening a letter of credit at Banco República (BROU) just a few days before the change of presidential command in Uruguay, which generated strong criticism and subsequent audits.
Redbridge has stated that that 2024 presentation did not constitute a final policy, but rather a notice of intent that was never formalized because the shipyard did not pay the corresponding premium and when it sent the policy, it had serious differences with the “Terms and Conditions”, in addition to this company based in Barbados, the State of Florida, USA and Uruguay, specialized in health insurance, does not have the required qualifications, nor the minimum background for an insurance of 90 million dollars.
Due to these two legal, or rather totally illegal, elements, the Uruguayan government, completing the process starting on October 22, 2025, definitively terminated the contract with Cardama SA.
To the criminal process initiated before the Uruguayan prosecutor’s office on that date, civil cases are now added for the serious irregularities in the construction of the vessels, proven by multiple reports from the ship captains sent by the Uruguayan State last year to control the construction process and who on many occasions pointed out irregularities of all kinds, which were confirmed by an independent audit by the Bureau Veritas, whose technical report was delivered on January 16, 2026 to the authorities. Uruguayans.
Full version of the report:
The Technical Report of the Bureau Veritas that destroys CARDAMA and EL PAIS
Even the white newspaper El País, which at the beginning headlined a big lie with a lot of impetus, slowly retreated and accepted the inevitable: the construction problems at the Cardama shipyard were very important and the delivery date foreseen in the contract was unfulfillable.
This is the first major political, institutional and personal blow to the government of Luis Lacalle Pou, especially to his Minister of Defense Javier García and several Navy officers who became complicit in this scam. Uruguay has already paid 30 million dollars.
Although we will have to wait for the progress of the investigations of Alejandro Machado, head of the 1st Shift Economic and Complex Crimes Prosecutor’s Office, where the complaint for alleged crimes of fraud and swindling of the State was presented by the current Uruguayan government (headed by President Yamandú Orsi), the political sanction for the previous government is very severe and the dangers of criminal convictions are very serious.
The so-called CRADAMAGATE has a very important meaning for Uruguayan politics and institutions, because to this scandal we must add the uninterrupted series of immoralities that occurred during the Lacalle Pou government, such as the monopolistic transfer of the port of Montevideo for 60 years to the Belgian company Katoen Natie, recently annulled by the TCA, the delivery of a Uruguayan passport to the largest Uruguayan drug trafficker and the southern cone Sebastián Marset, while he was detained in Dubai; the prosecution of the head of the presidential custody Alejandro Astesiano, accused of multiple crimes, the use of the State apparatus to influence the pedophilia case of the white senator Gustavo Penadés, the scandals in Public Health and in ASSE. To mention the most notable.
Citizens, in multiple manifestations of detachment from politics and politicians, needed clear signals that the national heritage is cared for and those responsible for crimes against the State are punished.
This is a very important first step. We will have to continue investigating journalistically that several other companies are directly involved. There may be surprises.
UyPress – Uruguayan News Agency
