The Odebrecht case is one of the largest corruption cases documented in recent Latin American history, spanning more than 30 years. It is based on an investigation by the United States Department of Justice, along with 10 Latin American countries, into the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. This investigation details how Odebrecht would have made bribes to presidents, former presidents and government officials of 12 countries: Angola, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, United States, Guatemala, Mexico, Mozambique, Panama, Peru, Dominican Republic and Venezuela, during the last 20 years, in order to obtain benefits in public contracting.
Overview
The Odebrecht case was one of the biggest transnational bribery schemes in Latin America. At least ten countries were involved: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.
By country
Argentina
According to US prosecutors, between 2007 and 2014 Odebrecht made multiple bribery payments worth $35 million to government officials in Argentina. On 4 January 2017, the head of the Argentine AFI (Federal Intelligence Agency), Gustavo Arribas, was indicted for receiving bribes and other gifts from Odebrecht. Between September 25 and 27, 2013, a Brazilian financial operator convicted by the Brazilian courts for the Lava Jato case transferred more than half a million dollars to an account of Gustavo Arribas, destined to pay bribes, money laundering and evasion. Arribas received almost $600,000 in his account in Switzerland. Former Minister of Public Planning, Julio De Vido and former secretaries José López and Roberto Baratta, were accused, charged and prosecuted for the crime of fraudulent administration and alleged bribery in the construction of the AYSA water treatment plant in Tigre and the water treatment plant in Berazategui. The director of AYSA, Carlos Ben, and the manager Raúl Biancuzzo were also prosecuted. The other defendants were the businessmen Tito Biagini, Aldo Benito Roggio, Jorge Corcho Rodríguez and Carlos Wagner. The case will be brought to oral proceedings in 2021. De Vido was also prosecuted for acts of corruption linked to the Odebrecht company, in the construction of gas pipelines in Argentina, together with the former Secretary of Energy Daniel Cameron.
Brazil
According to the judicial document released by the United States, starting in 2009, Odebrecht paid approximately US$349 million in bribes to various political parties in the country, foreign officials and their representatives in Brazil, financing political campaigns in elections to obtain benefits and contracts of construction works with local governments in different districts of the country, with the central government and several public companies administered by the State. Washington specifically mentions many contracts with the state oil company Petrobras, during different governments in recent years, and the Brazilian justice has already sentenced the millionaire and former president of the construction company, Marcelo Odebrecht (1968-), to 19 years and 4 months in prison for a scandal of corruption that involves the oil company with the construction company Odebrecht, with oil infrastructure works with this public company administered by the State. Eduardo Cunha, president of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, is currently in prison awaiting prosecution for corruption. In one of the charges brought by the Prosecutor's Office, Cunha is accused of receiving bribes from a consortium of which Odebrecht was part for works in the port area of Rio de Janeiro. Federal judge Sergio Moro, however, in Brazil's national court only found him guilty of paying more than US$30 million in bribes to Petrobras officials in exchange for obtaining contracts and influence for the company, but investigations continue to be able to determine the degree of responsibility of public officials during the governments of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer. Senator Aécio Neves, along with his party member, José Serra, and the President of the Republic, Michel Temer, was also summoned in court for accepting bribes.
Colombia
The document from the US judicial authorities maintains that in a period between approximately 2009 and 2014, Odebrecht made and caused payments of more than US$12 million to be made to secure public works contracts. The company made profits of more than $50 million as a result of these corrupt payments. The construction company has a presence in Colombia since 1991. Between 2009 and 2017, it made corrupt payments to secure public works contracts. In this period, two high engineering works appear, the Ruta del Sol sector, awarded in December 2009 by the transformed National Institute of Concessions (Inco), and the contract for the navigability of the Magdalena River, delivered in August 2014 to the consortium Navelena, which controls Odebrecht. Colombian justice has already focused its first actions on establishing what businesses Odebrecht S.A. had in the country. during the 15 years indicated in the United States. Prosecutor Néstor Humberto Martínez contacted the United States Department of Justice to arrange a way to share the information collected by the New York court, while in Colombia a specialized working group was created consisting of 3 prosecutors and 20 investigators. that they have already undertaken the first investigations into the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, in which it is detailed that it had carried out money bribes and bribes to public officials of the government of several countries to obtain benefits in public contracting missions of information collection.
The Colombian justice aims to relate the legal representatives of public entities and the Brazilian multinational from 2009 to 2016, Odebrecht has operated since 1991 in Colombia, while it is intended to collect all the documentation that details the procedure that was given to them. to Odebrecht's businesses in Colombia. In principle, it seeks to establish if the findings and reports of the North American justice are sufficient to structure criminal proceedings for improper bribery, illicit enrichment and money laundering in Colombia, if the illicit ones are proven. Faced with the scandal unleashed by the announcements of the North American justice system, the Presidency announced that it has already contacted the North American justice system and there will be full collaboration in everything that is required. In his first statements, the Secretary of Transparency, Camilo Enciso, stated that his agency will help the courts to identify the official who received US$6.5 million in bribes between 2009 and 2010.
Odebrecht had a Structured Operations Division, managed by a paper company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, through which it transferred money to carry out the bribes. The official was arrested for this case, and who received the US$6.5 million, is the former Vice Minister of Transportation Gabriel García Morales, to whom the Prosecutor's Office imputed the charges of illicit enrichment, bribery and undue interest in the conclusion of contracts, by favoring Odebrecht as the winner of the Ruta del Sol Section 2 contract, ruling out the other competitors. dente 2014: y18 The second arrest in this case was made in mid-January 2017 against former Colombian senator Otto Nicolás Bula; According to an investigation by the FIscalía, Bula was hired by the Odebrecht branch in Colombia on August 5, 2013, in order for the former senator to obtain the contract to build the Ocaña-Gamarra road, in favor of the Ruta del Sol SAS Concession, of which Odebrecht was part. In order for Odebrecht to obtain this contract, the firm's second bribe in the country for US$4.6 million would have materialized, so that the project would not be submitted to a tender as stipulated by law, but would instead be carried out properly. Directly through an agreement, which was achieved on March 14, 2014.
The Office of the Attorney General of the Nation charged former Senator Bula with the crimes of bribery for giving or offering and illicit enrichment.19 The construction company was expelled from the union by the Colombian Infrastructure Chamber on January 16, 2017.20 On January 14, former Liberal Party congressman Otto Bula was arrested, accused of receiving a commission of $4.6 million for favoring Odebrecht in the concession of a highway. Similarly, Bula has declared having delivered a sum close to US$1 million to a businessman named Andrés Giraldo, who would be the link between him and the Campaign Manager of Santos Presidente 2014 (reelection): Roberto Prieto. This would imply that the Government of the Nobel Peace Prize and the President himself would have some degree of involvement in this gigantic transnational scandal. The possible participation of the Brazilian consultant Duda Mendoça, detained within the framework of Operation Lava Jato, in Óscar Iván Zuluaga's campaign is also being investigated.
Dominican Republic
In June 2017, Supreme Court Justice Francisco Ortega sent eight individuals arrested in connection with the Odebrecht case including two senators and other officeholders to jail and two into house arrest, including several current or former officeholders.
Defendants were charged with bribery, money laundering, and other crimes.
By mid-2019, the case appeared to be stalled, until the Public Prosecutor's Office filed charges and sent six to trial, which began in September 2020,
but the case was weakened when none of the witnesses could testify to having witnessed bribery.
In June 2021, the former chief of the Public Prosecutor's Office from 2016 to 2020 was arrested on numerous charges related to the case, raising further doubts about the impartiality of the accusations in the case.
Nevertheless, two of the defendants were convicted in October 2021, but there were questions about the validity of the ruling.
The conviction was upheld in May 2023 by an Appeals Court, but a dissenting justice claimed the decision would likely be reversed on further appeal,
In August 2024, the Supreme Court of Justice vacated the Appeals Court decision, declaring the defendants innocent.
With the high court decision, the Odebrecht case concluded in the Dominican Republic without any individuals being identified as responsible for the alleged bribes admitted by Odebrecht in 2016.
Mexico
In a period between approximately 2010 and 2014, that is, during the administrations of former presidents Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and Enrique Peña Nieto, Odebrecht was linked to payments worth US$10.5 million to win Mexican public works contracts that generated benefits. for more than US$39 million. Odebrecht participated in the reconfiguration of three refineries: Minatitlán (Veracruz), Tula (Hidalgo) and Salamanca (Guanajuato), for the state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX). In all of them there was direct award, overpriced payments or irregular budget increases.