Strong answer. The coordinating senior prosecutor of the Lava Jato Special Team, Rafael Vela Barbaannounced that they are preparing the report that they will send to the Federal Public Ministry of Brazil, in response to the observations made by the construction company Odebrechttoday Novor.
Also, they will require the former directors of the construction company to comply with the effective collaboration agreement and to appear at the hearings of the public trial of the case against former president Ollanta Humala and the Nationalist Party, as planned.
The Prosecutor’s Office considers and is sure of being able to prove to its peers in Brazil that the terms of the effective collaboration agreement have not been breached and that there are facts unrelated to the action of the jurisdictional authorities.
“These are old dissatisfactions, about some procedural aspects that have been developed for a long time, such as the incorporation as civil third parties of the company Rutas de Lima. They are also objecting to my presence as a witness in arbitrations related to the granting of Routes of Lima and the gas pipeline”, he explained.
The document from the Brazilian Prosecutor’s Office officially arrived this Wednesday at the International Cooperation Unit of the National Prosecutor’s Office. “The document has been referred to the special team of prosecutors of the car wash case so that they formulate the clarifications corresponding to the observations that motivated said suspension and be officially sent to Brazil”, reported the Office of the Prosecutor of the Nation.
Arbitrations
Odebrecht’s defense states that, in some of its points, the collaboration agreement it signed in February 2019 refers to issues of criminal jurisdiction, not administrative procedures.
In this aspect, questions that the prosecutor Vela Barba participates as a witness in the arbitrations and has provided various information on acts of corruption linked to Odebrecht.
In May 2020, the Municipality of Lima it lost the arbitration with the Rutas de Lima consortium, which was held before the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), but since then it rejects the award, pointing out that the work was born with a corrupt agreement.
On November 4, 2020, Odebrecht filed a lawsuit with the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) for the stoppage of the construction of the South Gas Pipeline. The process is pending, but Peru defends itself by saying that this project is also the product of a corrupt agreement.
For Rutas de Lima, Peru must pay 67 million dollars plus interest and for Gasoducto, Odebrecht claims 1.2 billion dollars.
Research
The defense of the Brazilian company also demands that processes in which it has not recognized acts of corruption be kept open, which also, it says, exceeds the collaboration agreement that it signed with the special team and the Peruvian Attorney.
The Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into a possible illegal agreement between Odebrecht, as part of the Rutas de Lima Consortium, and officials and servers of the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima, relative to the Budian codynome. The illicit agreement supposes the offer and delivery of illicit payments in order to ensure the approval of the concession and addendum of bankability of the project.
The investigation into the South Gas Pipeline also remains open, in which Odebrecht officials have not acknowledged having made agreements or payments with Peruvian public officials.
The Prosecutor’s Office hopes to lift the observations soon and reestablish international judicial cooperation as soon as possible so as not to affect the trials.
Renaissance. Novonor seeks to recover the seat that Odebrecht had as the main construction company in Latin America. Design: The Republic
Hearing will be held on November 16.
The Permanent Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice rescheduled the appeal hearing for Wednesday, November 16 that will define whether Odebrecht’s contributions to the former president Ollanta Humala and the Peruvian Nationalist Party constitute a crime of money laundering.
The hearing was postponed due to a COVID-19 infection that Supreme Judge Manuel Luján Túpez presented since last week. The Prosecutor’s Office, the prosecutor and the lawyers will participate in the hearing.
