Odebrecht: Julio De Vido, the "Cork" Rodríguez, Baratta and businessman Roggio were sent to oral trial

Lucia Salinas

07/24/2020 - 16:32

• Clarín.com
• Politics

Federal judge Sebastián Casanello closed the investigation and brought to trial the case investigating the alleged payment of bribes by the Brazilian firm Odebrecht and its Argentine partners to former Kirchner officials , to obtain construction contracts for two works to the state company AySA. In the case,  Julio De Vido, José López, Roberto Baratta, Jorge "cork" Rodríguez, former AySA managers Raúl Biancuzzo and Carlos Ben , businessmen Carlos Wagner and Aldo Roggio , among others, are being prosecuted, accused of bribes and others from fraudulent administration.

Odebrecht, the company implicated in the mega-process for Brazilian corruption, Lava Jato, admitted having paid bribes for $ 35 million in our country to obtain public works contracts during the Kirchner government.

The first of the projects under scrutiny was the construction and commissioning of the “Paraná de las Palmas” water treatment plant, which was awarded to the Transitory Union of Companies formed by the Odebrecht firms -50% -, “Supercemento” -16 , 66% -, “Benito Roggio e Hijos” -16.67% - and “José Cartellone Construcciones Civiles”, with a participation of 16.66%.

The second of the disputed contracts consisted of the construction of the purification plant "Sistema Berazategui", in which the union formed by the companies "Camargo Correa -60% - and" Esuco "-40% - won. Then Odebrecht took the place of Camargo Correa.

In his investigation, Judge Casanello determined that "a spurious agreement was concluded between public officials and businessmen, motivated by the payment of bribes, which involved improper concessions for the benefit of contractors and which inevitably resulted in a fraud against the State as a consequence of the infidel administration of public resources . "

Validating these arguments, two State agencies under the current management requested that the 26 defendants go to oral trial, and for this reason Judge Casanello asked the prosecutor of the case to make his request for elevation, that is, the accusation that will be read in the oral trial and that brought them all to that instance.

In the 70-page resolution to which Clarín agreed , the judge maintained that it was considered "proven that the joint ventures made up of Odebrecht, Supercemento, Roggio and Cartellone -in the case of Paraná de las Palmas-; and Camargo Correa and Esuco - in Berazategui - they will be awarded "to later" grant them, in addition - in both cases - benefits such as additional works, price redeterminations, financial advances and extensions in the execution deadlines, causing damage to the National State ".

For the magistrate, by these maneuvers the State "was deprived of obtaining better offers due to the absence of competition, had to face higher final costs and withstand serious delays in the delivery of the works."

For this reason, he remarked that this operation "was deployed by officials departing from the elementary principles that govern public procurement, such as equality, competition and transparency", also, "the specifications and conditions of the tenders in question , in clear violation of the duties imposed by the norms that govern its performance. "

Consequently, all of this " allowed us to prove that we were facing simulated tenders, which functioned as a disguise to give the appearance of formal legality to decisions that had been previously conceived," said Delgado.

Everything happened between 2007 and 2014, from the signing of the construction contracts to the signing of the latest addendums. For the prosecution, the terrain on which the events took place also has two planes.

It was also determined that a bribery circuit existed . Casanello said that the irregularities detected in both tenders "undressed the interested parties' actions in favor of the companies awarded the works , all to the detriment of the State, which had to face higher costs and unjustified delays in the delivery of the works."

This had another purpose, since according to the judge the "addressing of tenders" began "before the contracting requirements were formulated by the AYSA company, while the illegal benefits and advantages agreed between officials and individuals of the companies spread during the execution of the works ".

Odebrecht confessed that it used a sophisticated mechanism to make illegal payments, that is, bribes. "This mechanism was made up of parallel accounting and a sector of the company dedicated only to the management of illegal payments that were mainly channeled through offshore accounts and companies, this in order to hinder the traceability of money," stressed the judge.

The spurious payments were made through the Structured Operations Division, and had as "final recipients were Argentine public officials. The payments, according to the evidence collected. Were made in two stages: the first with the purpose of obtaining the award of the contracts and the second in order to unlock payments due. "

Just over a week ago, Felix Crous had dropped another appeal. This is a lack of merit dictated in favor of Cristina Kirchner in a file derived from the case of the Cuadernos de las Coimas. He then argued that the prosecutor Carlos Stornelli had not made any complaint in this regard and that they would respect that criterion. At the beginning of the administration, in addition, the OA renounced being a plaintiff in the trial against the vice president and her children, Máximo and Florencia Kirchner, in a case for money laundering. These are the Los Sauces and Hotesur cases where they were charged with money laundering operations. The trial will take place without the body as the accusing party.