Asunción: Horacio Cartes, Tabesa’s main shareholder, has borrowed more than 805.9 billion guaranies, about $116 million, over a 12-month period, according to the financial report filed with the Attorney General’s Office. The former president is a co-debtor for some of the million-euro loans and a guarantor for others.
The main shareholder of Tabacalera del Este SA (Tabesa), Horacio Cartes Jara, has made more than 30 loans with at least six different financial institutions between the end of December 2020 and January 2022. This emerges from the Secretariat’s Intelligence Report on the Prevention of Money Laundering (Seprelad), which is available from the Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the document, which gathers blistering data on an alleged money laundering and cigarette smuggling scheme, the former president is listed with loans of more than 805.9 billion Guaranies, about US$116 million, during the period.
According to the report, the former president is a co-debtor on most of these loans and a guarantor on others, albeit to a lesser extent.
Some of the loans are non-customizable amortizing loans, while others are funded, the report said.
Dollars and Guaranies
Cartes is listed with loans in Guaraníes and Dollars. The largest loan is dated December 28, 2020 and totals more than 182.596 billion Guaranies raised in American currency, according to the financial report.
On the same day, Tabesa’s main shareholder makes three more loans of 79.2 billion guaranies, 38.8 billion guaranies and 18.7 billion guaranies.
Cartes’ other loans were granted a few months apart last year. The smallest amount loans are from March 26 and June 25, both in 2021, and amount to 3.4 billion Guaranies each, according to the document filed with prosecutors.
A loan for 50.4 billion Guaranies in which Horacio Cartes is a co-debtor has no date given.
87.9 Billion Guarani
As of the beginning of this year, Cartes is listed with about five loans totaling 87.9 billion Guaranies. The lending operations have the same date, January 31, 2022, but were conducted with different financial institutions, according to the report.
The document mentions two other loans in 2019 and 2013, but does not specify the amounts. According to the information, the transactions were only processed in dollars.
credit cards
In addition to the loans, the former president owned three credit cards totaling 310 million Guaranies. The magnetic cards would be managed by his group’s bank.
Debt on his credit cards totaled just over 11 million Guaranies as of February this year, the document shows.
Former President Horacio Cartes is also credited as the holder of other products such as checking accounts, savings deposits and savings certificates, mostly at his group’s bank. He is the owner of some of them and a signatory of others, according to the financial report.
Cash movements in the millions
The Seprelad report shows that the leader of the Honor Colorado movement had multi-million dollar cash movements at his disposal. Cartes is said to have moved more than 114 billion Guaranies (around $16 million) between 2019 and 2022. The former President records several notable operations such as depositing $3,000,000 into his account in a single day and withdrawing 5 billion Guaranies in a single operation. Cartes appears in the document only in 2021 with cash withdrawals of more than 63.1 billion Guaranies, with June being the month with the largest transaction, coincidentally ahead of the ANR’s internal elections ahead of local elections.
Other names that appear in the transfers
The financial report shows that Horacio Cartes, Tabesa’s main shareholder, transferred and received billions of Guaraníes in his personal capacity between 2014 and 2022. The numbers add up to 2.9 billion Guaranies and 1.3 billion Guaranies, the document said.
On the list of people with transfers from Cartes is former Itapúa governor Federico Rafael Vergara with 2.11 billion Guaranies Vergara finished the tenure of the late Luis Gneiting (2013-2018).
Others to emerge are José Wilfrido Villanueva, former Amambay Department MP who is said to have received 200 million Guaranies; former Deputy Secretary of State for Taxes (SET), Marta González, more than 79 million Guaranies; and Santa Elena (Cordillera Department) Mayor Miguel Olmedo, of 65 million Guaranies, according to the report.
Other names
The list of recipients of Cartes transfers is headed by his group’s bank with 415 billion Guaranies. Club Libertad follows with 329 billion guaranies, Cementos Concepción SAE with 230 billion guaranies and Sarah Cartes with 171.5 billion guaranies.
Also on the list are Cartista MPs Walter Harms and Blanca Vargas with transfers of 199 million and 15 million Guaranies, respectively.
Luis Rafael de los Ríos, former secretary of the Villa Hayes community and aide to Congressman Basilio “Bachi” Núñez, also appears with referrals from Cartes. According to the financial report, he received more than 6.8 billion guaranies.
Endorsed
Cartes appears with referrals in his favor from some of his businesses. Such is the case with Tabesa, who transferred 361.6 billion Guaranies to him, according to the document.
Palermo SA and Sarah Cartes are other companies that transferred 189 billion Guaranies and 116 billion Guaranies respectively to the aforementioned former President of the Republic.
Among the politicians who have sent Cartes money are Cartes’ deputy Erico Galeano with 14.9 billion guaranies and former Itaipu director José Alberto Alderete with 296 million guaranies. Strikingly, the former president emerges with a “self-transfer” of more than 267.3 billion Guaranies during this period, the report shows.
Weekly / Abc Color
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