In mid-April, a renowned businessman from the advertising sector in Colombia was summoned for an interrogation by the Second Prosecutor’s Office of the Odebrecht Special Task Force, within a file labeled as alleged ‘money laundering’.
Although the case is handled under reserve, EL TIEMPO exclusively established that this office is investigating a chapter of that transnational bribery scandal that hit several countries and that in Colombia seemed to have been judicially buried.
Specifically, the episode that has just resurfaced is the payment for a survey by Odebrecht, which amounted to one million dollars at the time.
The referral to Prieto
Documents obtained by EL TIEMPO show that, on May 11, the same office referred copies against Roberto Prieto, manager of the Santos 2014-2018 campaign, for alleged procedural fraud and illicit enrichment by a private individual.
Furthermore, this newspaper established that the businessman summoned for interrogation is Felipe Arango, formerly head of the renowned advertising firm Sancho BBDO.
According to sources from the Prosecutor’s Office, he appeared for the proceeding accompanied by his attorney, the well-known lawyer Fabio Humar.
The referral against Roberto Prieto was ordered based on information provided by the Analysis Group for the Odebrecht Case (GACO), in a document dated August 2, 2023.
It is stated that, in his role as campaign manager, Prieto did not report to the National Electoral Council (CNE) the money received between March 26 and April 28, 2014, from the Brazilian construction company Norberto Odebrecht.
According to the document, it was a contribution in services, to “investigate the evolution and monitoring of Santos’ candidacy,” ahead of the electoral contest, economically valued at one million dollars.
The trail in Panama
And this is where the businessman summoned for interrogation fits in.
According to the same document, the money was transferred to the company Paddington Ventures Ltda., through Odebrecht’s Structured Operations Division, the same one that appears paying bribes in several countries implicated in the scandal.
EL TIEMPO investigated and established that the money was moved through the accounts of the offshore companies Klinfield Limited and Innovation Res Eng Development, both based on the island of Antigua.
Paddington, for its part, turned out to be a company based in Panama and directly linked to the renowned advertising firm Sancho BBDO in Colombia.
‘Product of a deception’
In Roberto Prieto’s case, EL TIEMPO established that he was summoned for indictment a couple of weeks ago.
And although he appeared virtually, he reported that he was in the United States and needed to hire a lawyer to exercise his right to defense.
After a second scheduling of the indictment hearing, it was finally agreed for next Thursday, July 30.
The Prosecutor’s Office asserts in his case that, “as a result of that deception” – the non-reporting of Odebrecht’s money – the CNE magistrates not only approved the campaign accounts he presented.
Furthermore, votes were reimbursed in favor of the ‘U’ party, that of the candidate and later president Juan Manuel Santos Calderón.
Indeed, for the first round, 6 mil 576 million pesos and 9 mil 468 million pesos were disbursed, for the second round.
At that time, violating campaign spending limits was not a crime. This was criminalized in 2017, which is why Ricardo Roa, manager of the Petro president 2022 campaign, was indeed summoned for indictment for that conduct.
The 10 recipients
In the case of businessman Arango, sources from the Prosecutor’s Office indicate that the first thing they want to establish is whether a survey with the characteristics agreed upon in the contract amounted to that millionaire sum.
Additionally, they want to verify five payments, for the approximate sum of 10 mil dollars (a total of about 50 mil dollars) that left Paddington destined for individuals Irma Alcocer, Felipe Arbeláez, Diana Vidales, Gonzalo Aristizábal, and Carlos Alberto Montoya.
EL TIEMPO contacted criminal lawyer Humar to ask him about the interrogation proceeding, but he declined to comment on the matter: “Thank you for the inquiry, but neither the defense nor the clients will comment on the issue.”
Sources close to the case told EL TIEMPO that preliminary versions suggest that the money covered Álvaro Arango’s expenses abroad, Felipe Arango’s uncle, after a credit card mishap he had. Furthermore, at the time of signing the contract, Odebrecht was a renowned multinational that everyone wanted as a client.
Prieto’s defense
For his part, criminal lawyer Jesús Albeiro Yepes, who has just taken over Prieto’s defense, told EL TIEMPO that in the investigations carried out against his client, the survey matter had not been judicially considered.
And he explained that the survey was a matter between private parties, in the pre-electoral stage, and before Prieto had registered as campaign manager: “Furthermore, it is prohibited to receive contributions from legal entities and foreigners.”
He even assured that the campaign did not even know the results of the survey.
Therefore, on July 17, the Prosecutor’s Office was asked to install a technical-legal committee to “guarantee an objective, comprehensive, and technically supported assessment of the material evidence and physical evidence collected so far.”
The letter, known by EL TIEMPO, states that far from evidencing his client’s intervention in the contracting of the public opinion study or in the eventual decision to omit its report, the evidence shows that the questioned legal transaction was conceived and began to be executed before he joined the Santos campaign as manager.
Furthermore, Yepes says that his client’s non-participation also stems from statements by Eleuberto Martorelli, president of Odebrecht in Colombia at the time of the events; and by Luis Alberto Peña Bernal, who was the person with whom Odebrecht negotiated the study of political preferences through Paddington and Carlos Felipe Arango.
“What was sought was to obtain strategic information about the Colombian political and regional environment,” said the lawyer.
The Prosecutor’s Office indicated that the committee has not been approved and that Prieto’s indictment is firm for next July 30.
(Consult all articles from EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit here)
In the case of businessman Felipe Arango, the traceability of payments, the costs of the survey, and the destination of the rest of the million dollars will begin to be established.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
u.investigativa@eltiempo.com
@UinvestigativaET
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