Since the outbreak of the Lava Jato scandal, former legislators, officials, businessmen and former presidents have been investigated and convicted for their involvement in the Odebrecht bribery case, which has had a presence in more than 10 Latin American countries. For the case, in the Dominican Republic the First Collegiate Court of the National District issued eight and five years to businessman Ángel Rondón and former minister Víctor Díaz Rúa, respectively.
In Brazil, the bribery case, which resulted from the operation called Lava Jato, has led former legislators to prison such as the former president of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Cunha, who was sentenced in 2018 to 24 years in prison for crimes of corruption and money laundering. of money. The former congressman was brought to court for the distribution of more than $ 30 million in bribes.
The former president of the construction company, Marcelo Odebrecht, was sentenced, in principle, to more than 30 years in prison for the case, however, his sentence was reduced to 10 by a collaboration agreement with the authorities.
At the end of August of this year, the Colombian Supreme Court of Justice issued eight years in prison against former senator Bernardo Elías Vidal, “co-perpetrator criminally responsible for the crimes of conspiracy to commit an aggravated crime in heterogeneous competition with the illicit money laundering” and a fine of about 13 million Colombian pesos.
–
In 2017, a Colombina court imposed five years in prison against former senator Otto Bula, for his involvement in the bribery case, however, last February a court changed the measure to house arrest after his collaboration as a witness and the payment of 35 minimum wage.
For receiving a payment of 6.5 million dollars for the award of a work, the former Deputy Minister of Transportation of Colombia Gabriel García was sentenced to five years in prison in 2017. The former official was the first arrested for the scandal in that country.
At the beginning of October 2020, the Superior Court of Bogotá confirmed a sentence of 11 years in prison against José Elías Melo, former president of the Corficolombiana corporation, for his knowledge of the payment of bribes for the award of a work.
In December 2017, the then Vice President of Ecuador, Jorge Glas, was found guilty of the crime of illicit association, within the Odebrecht corruption scheme, and sentenced to six years in prison.
In Guatemala, in 2019, three people linked to the former Minister of Infrastructure Alejandro Sinibaldi and the former presidential candidate, Manuel Baldizón, were sentenced to between 6 and 14 years. The court found them guilty of operating front companies in which Sinibaldi and Baldizón received money from the payment of bribes by Odebrecht.
–
The case in the Dominican Republic
In 2017, the case of bribes for 92 million dollars included officials, legislators, with Ángel Rondón as the main defendant. In total, 14 people were linked, however, after four years, only the businessman and former Minister of Public Works Víctor Díaz Rúa were convicted.
Justices Gisselle Méndez, Tania Yunes and Jissel Naranjo made their decision unanimously and established that Ángel Rondón was the person who received the bribes for US $ 92 million from the construction company Odebrecht. As a result, he was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
As for Díaz Rúa, the court found elements of sufficient evidence that compromised his criminal responsibility with the crimes of money laundering and illicit enrichment.
– – .
