The Spanish 'conseguidor' that seduced construction companies in America

When in the tiered cenacles of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Panama they ask about the lawyer Mauricio Cort García, silence falls.

None of the businessmen consulted wants to comment on this handsome Spanish lawyer settled in Panama and specialized for two decades in the hermetic business of buying wills.

Or, what is the same, in collecting bribes of up to 10% of a work to construction companies on behalf of corrupt Latin American leaders.

From Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction giant that perpetrated the largest bribery scheme in America, to the Spanish multinational FCC, which won seven awards for 434 million dollars after signing the lawyer in 2010. The main brick totems touched the door of the discreet achiever.

“He is educated, conceited, he always wears a suit and wears good watches,” concedes a former classmate from the Santa María La Antigua Catholic University in Panama, where Cort graduated in Law and Political Science.

When this lawyer is questioned about less superficial aspects of his colleague, he politely cuts the conversation short.

"He is a perfect stranger in the legal field," adds another prestigious jurist.

"He belonged to the Chamber of Commerce of Spain in Panama, but he is no longer a member," they clarify from this body without going into detail.

Cort, 52,'s knack for connecting developers to the darker side of power is almost as prominent as his ability to blend in.

A profile that allowed him to sneak into the carpeted decision-making offices and win awards from the governments of Ricardo Martinelli (Panama), Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua) and Mauricio Funes (El Salvador) between 2010 and 2014. And also, take advantage of the great infrastructure of the presidential term of Felipe Calderón in Mexico (2006-2012), the La Yesca Hydroelectric Power Plant in the State of Nayarit.

Cort charged three million in Andorra for a mysterious report on this work awarded to the Mexican ICA which, in the opinion of the police of the European country, camouflaged a scheme for charging commissions, as revealed by EL PAÍS.

The embryo of Cort's bribery empire must be found on the first floor of a glass-enclosed building on Manuel María Icaza street in Panama City.

It is May 2003. And this lawyer, a smug guy with the air of a winner, has already spent a decade working in Panamanian law firms.

He has worked in two firms, has an MBA from the University of Valencia and believes that it is time to fly alone.

He creates Cort Business Brokers and Consultors, a firm that, under the umbrella of "advice on public tenders and contracts", offers its clients a direct path to access power.

No shortcuts.

Panama, a tiny nation of 4.4 million inhabitants that has topped the list of tax havens for decades due to its opacity, is the ideal place to undertake the project.

A Spaniard in Las Garzas

The landing in the Government of the Central American country of businessman Ricardo Martinelli, in 2009, triggered the business of the mysterious Spanish firm.

The lawyer begins to move like a fish in water in the Las Garzas palace, the seat of government.

He presumably becomes the official intermediary and, in a way, Martinelli's aulic advisor in matters of briefcases.

Eugenio del Barrio, who until 2013 was director in Latin America of FCC -a multinational investigated in Andorra and Spain for allegedly paying commissions to Cort to win contracts in Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Costa Rica- recognized the sphere of influence of Spanish in the Martinelli Executive.

“We had never heard of this man….

Minister Federico Suárez himself, who was the head of Public Works, told the general director of the construction company to hire Mauricio Cort," Del Barrio explained in June 2019 before two Panamanian prosecutors during a secret agreement, which was later declared null and void for formal technicalities.

Forged in the Panamanian embassy in Madrid, the frustrated collaboration allowed the unspeakable handling of the lawyer to surface.

And knowing that Cort charged FCC 10% per award, made decisions and adjusted margins for works, according to Del Barrio.

The former executive assured that the Spanish construction company disbursed 40 million in commissions for winning tenders between 2010 and 2014 in the Central American country.

And it is that, after hiring Cort, FCC won the works of the Luis Chicho Fábrega Hospital (127 million euros), the headquarters of the electoral court (27.6) the access to the Pacific channel of the Canal (187) -in consortium with the firms ICA and Meco— and the rehabilitation of the Centenario bridge (27.6).

EL PAÍS has unsuccessfully tried to obtain the FCC version.

To legalize the business, Cort camouflaged his bites with alleged consulting reports that he invoiced through his instrumental company Arados de Plata.

A firm created in Montevideo (Uruguay) in 2004 and in which the citizen of this nationality Juan Carlos Siekavica Costa appeared as front man.

The key that the lawyer used to land in the Martinelli circle is an enigma.

The lawyer told the Panamanian Prosecutor's Office that he met Ricardo Martinelli Linares, son of the former president, in the United States in 2012 and that he planned a business with him to purchase tanker ships valued at 17.7 million dollars.

The outcome of this undertaking is another mystery.

Cort's ascendancy in the Las Garzas palace took an unexpected turn in the midst of Martinelli's tenure (2009-2014).

The then president announced to the FCC executives that he planned to dismiss Federico Suárez from the Ministry of Public Works, and that the new interlocutor with the company would be Riccardo Francolini.

The fall from grace did not prevent the Spaniard from cashing in during his period as an influential man.

In 2010, a year after Martinelli landed in the Panama Executive, Cort became a client of Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA) to pay his professional fees of 10 million dollars a year.

He came to manage four accounts on behalf of instrumental companies in this entity.

He used one to allegedly collect bribes from FCC and another to move Odebrecht money.

And he never hid his intentions.

"Channel commissions from Spanish companies in Latam", revealed the founder of Cort Business Brokers and Consultors in the

(know your client), a kind of third degree that BPA clients filled out to clarify the origin of their wealth .

But so much success, transfer of millions and transfers set off alarm bells.

The Spaniard's plans to enter Andorra funds from the Bahamas and Switzerland and to use the European country to "buy real estate" and pay "real estate and financial investments" to third parties put him under suspicion.

This was revealed by a confidential report from the BPA, which warned in 2010 of the risk of accepting the lawyer as a client and recommended tracking his steps.

And this is also confirmed by the bank movements of the manager, who used his Andorran financial network to buy a property in Panama in the luxury residential complex with Ocean Reef heliport and invest in a real estate project on Pedro González Island.

Today, the wake of the winner has vanished.

After being sentenced in 2018 by a Panamanian court to 48 months in prison for moving Odebrecht commissions, Cort awaits on probation in the Central American country the outcome of his legal mess.

He faces causes in Panama, Andorra and Spain.

In all three countries they persecute him for his main skill: connecting construction companies with the most pestilent side of power.

The secretive lawyer has declined to answer questions from this newspaper.

investigacion@elpais.es

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