Spain authorizes extradition of businessman Carlos Mattos to Colombia

The Spanish government confirmed, on the night of this Friday, February 26, approval of the extradition of businessman Carlos Mattos to Colombia. Mattos has been required by Colombian justice since 2019 for the crime of corruption.

The decision was known after a meeting of the Council of Ministers of this country, which determined that the necessary conditions are met to give the green light to an extradition and which, in short, revolve around the necessity of the crime for which a person is to be criminalized in both countries.

In this sense, it is important to note that the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation opened proceedings against Mattos in January 2018. for paying at least 2,600 million pesos to two judges in Bogotá and several officials of the judiciary, to make them fail the precautionary measures in favor of the company Hyundai Colombia Automotriz, chaired by the businessman. Mattos committed the same crime a second time with the same goal.

This company controlled the sale of vehicles of the South Korean brand in Colombia until 2016, year in which the manufacturer granted the rights to Neocorp, the Colombian subsidiary of NeoHyundai, which in turn is part of the Eljuri group of companies, one of Ecuador’s most powerful conglomerates. The latter has also been the owner since 2001 of the importer MetroKia, in charge of the said brand in Colombian territory; and JAC since 2013.

Its takeover of Hyundai resulted in a difficult lawsuit with Mattos, who began by denouncing the said group before the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce, but I continue without releasing the possession of the representation of Hyundai, to the point of bribes and legal games.

First, Mattos would have paid at least 2,500 million pesos between 2015 and 2016 several judicial officials and judge Reinaldo Huertas to hijack a lawsuit against Hyundai towards sending the latter, so that it would fail precautionary measures in favor of the former and order that the South Korean manufacturer could not do business in Colombia with someone else.

As the case progressed and Neocorp continued to seek representation for the auto brand in Colombia, Mattos responded with a new set of trustees, Judge Ligia del Carmen Hernández to order the inspection of a subsidiary under its jurisdiction. For that, he paid her at least 100 million pesos. However, the latter was discovered by the prosecution and was sentenced in 2019 to a two-year prison term.

Mattos was eventually discovered due to the cash purchases made by Judge Huertas and the slow distribution system at the Civil Courts Judicial Services Center in Bogotá. After losing representation for Hyundai for good and seeing how the scandal began to unfold, in 2018, the businessman ends up moving to Spain, alleging that he was traveling to that country to receive medical treatment for health problems.

Since then, the Colombian prosecution has requested it on several occasions. However, Mattos used more legal tricks to evade extradition. The latest in October 2020, when the First Chamber of the Constitutional Court of Spain determined that the 73-year-old millionaire businessman could not be returned to Colombia, despite the fact that the national court of this country had already given the green light for this transfer, on two occasions, in 2019. That is until today, when the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs received notification of the approval of the transfer to the businessman’s country.

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