How did the corruption circuit in Odebrecht work?

The alleged bribes paid by the companies Odebrecht, Iecsa, Ghella and Comsa to the former officials of Kirchner to obtain and maintain the offer of bids relating to the burial of the Sarmiento railway would have been paid in two different stages, between 2005 and 2014. This was stated by the prosecutor Franco Picardi in a notice in which he asked that the businessmen and former officials involved be prosecuted for alleged corruption, including with Angelo Calcaterra, cousin of President Mauricio Macri.

The first stage of the bribe system took place before the award of the contract and the illegal payments would have been consumed through the intermediary of Iecsa and the Spanish company Comsa. The two companies made "incorrect payments" for a "nonexistent" consultation with the "ghost" company Caesa SA, Manuel Vázquez, leader of the secretary of transport at the time, Ricardo Jaime. On this occasion, payments amounted to nearly one million pesos. Vázquez is the only repentant local in this business. He agreed before the prosecutor to be an intermediary bribes, but his statement has not yet been approved by the judge.

The second stage of so-called kickbacks begins when the work has already been allocated and, according to the prosecutor, "the system of illegal payments has been made more sophisticated", using foreign companies to triangulate sums destined for officials. This included the new payments made by Odebrecht to the consulting firm Vázquez.

After the departure of Jaime from the Ministry of Transport, the regime would have changed some elements: the public works secretary of the time, José López, and the manager Roberto Baratta became the alleged recipients of bribes while businessman Jorge "Corcho" Rodríguez J would have badumed the role of intermediary.

"It was possible to determine the leak of nearly 5 million US dollars" from an account managed by Iecsa in Buenos Aires to the Principality of Andorra (tax haven) "thanks to the use of A new fictitious contract between the four winning companies in the market and the Spanish company DSC (used by Odebrecht throughout the region to pay bribes), "the prosecution said. The supposed contract related to the fact that DSC, based in Madrid, provides technical badistance for the execution of the engineering plans of the works to be carried out in Buenos Aires.

This maneuver had been announced by AFIP, as PROFILE revealed in 2018. The Treasury even denounced the companies for alleged fraud, as stated in the notice. Calcaterra, however, argued before the judge that the Spanish company had drawn up plans for the works and provided real services. Martínez De Giorgi agreed with him, but the prosecutor stated that "there was never any service provided by the Spanish company" and that the contract was a cover allowing to send money for kickbacks.

Picardi criticized the fact that Iecsa submitted "photocopies" (of the contract with DSC) without their originals and other original vouchers, and without a clear description of how, at what time and with what staff the work agreed by the parties would have done. been made ", and that these photocopies only appeared after AFIP's denunciation in 2018. In addition, he pointed out that, despite the payment of nearly $ 5 million to DSC, they did not do not count "with the original plans for works that have not yet been completed".

This money supposedly fled to Andorra "was destined for a financial institution in the eastern Republic of Uruguay, where it would have been withdrawn in cash," the prosecution explained. It is at this point that the attorney badociates businessman Corcho Rodríguez as an intermediary between former Lopez and Baratta officials. The payments were laundered by the Uruguayan company Sabrimol Trading SA (owned by Rodríguez).