Tabacaleras del Este SA (Tabesa), owned by Horacio Cartes, former president of the Republic, carried out a simulation of local purchases, hiding the final destination of the product. These operations are suspicious because none of the alleged buyers is involved in the wholesale or retail sale of cigarettes.
This can be seen in the leaked report from the Secretariat for the Prevention of Money Laundering (Seprelad), leaked by the media last Saturday.
This situation supports the hypothesis of an operation known in the financial and accounting field as “ticketing” or issuing invoices to nearby recipients to simulate sales.
In this way, it seeks to document the production and distribution of cigarettes that are allegedly smuggled.
With this purchase simulation it can be deduced that the tobacco company laundered assets.
DECEASED CLIENTS
The simulation of purchases was carried out in the first place with companies of doubtful existence.
Before the start of investigations, the clients became people from the former president’s environment, such as his sister Sarah Cartes, and also deceased people, even long before the billing was carried out.
Although the amounts exposed do not have significant dimensions, it is evidence of the type of fictitious operation (See infographic).
UNKNOWN
Pedro Ovelar, lawyer for former President Cartes, stated that they are working to confirm if the information is real.
“First we are going to confirm if that is true, and then see the dates and supposed amounts,” he said.
We wanted to ask him more questions, but the lawyer told us that he had little time due to the proceedings that this complaint entails.
The report reads that, in total, these people bought (all together) Tabesa cigarettes for G. 118 million.
Some of them died, (according to the report) long before the alleged purchase.
