The Prosecutor's Office imputes the former president of Paraguay Horacio Cartes

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(CNN Spanish) - The Lava Jato working group of the Federal Prosecutor's Office of Brazil filed charges against 19 people, including the former president of Paraguay, Horacio Cartes.

Among those formally accused on Thursday before the 7th Federal Criminal Court of Rio de Janeiro there are eleven Brazilians, seven Paraguayans and one Uruguayan.

The Paraguayan ex-president was charged by the Prosecutor's Office within the framework of Operation Patron, an investigation into a criminal network linked to the Brazilian money exchanger Dario Messer, detained in his country in July after having been a fugitive for 14 months. Messer faces charges of money laundering, currency evasion and criminal organization. His defense has denied all charges.

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Operation Patron, according to the report of the Brazilian Prosecutor's Office, identified about 20 million dollars, 17 million of them irregularly in a bank in Bahamas and the rest atomized among illegal money changers, regular exchange houses, businessmen, politicians and a lawyer In Paraguay.

According to the Prosecutor's Office, it was possible to identify 17 criminal acts committed by the organization since 2011.

The Brazilian prosecutor's accusation against Horacio Manuel Cartes Jara says that the former president, consciously, voluntarily promoted, financed and personally integrated the organization led by Messer.

The lawyer of Cartes, Pedro Ovelar, addressed the press on Friday to minimize the complaint and clarify that this is “simply the formalization of the process” that had begun with a previous request for preventive detention ordered by Brazil against the president in mid November, which was revoked a few days later by the Brazilian justice.

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Ovelar clarified that there is no new element against former president Cartes. The Brazilian prosecutor's office, according to the defense of Cartes, intends to involve him for an alleged exchange of chats with Messer, and a letter from Messer in which he asked Cartes for $ 500,000. Ovelar said it is still unknown if that letter ever came to Cartes. The defense of former president Cartes considers that there are no elements to prove that his defendant transferred the $ 500,000 that Messer allegedly requested and argues that if that is found, it would not be illegal either.

The defense of the Paraguayan ex-president announced that he will request a separation from Horacio Cartes due to lack of evidence. According to his lawyer, “Cartes always responded that he had no commercial and corporate ties with Messer.

This has been emphatically denied. Cartes and Messer are not business partners, ”added Ovelar.

Horacio Cartes