Attorney Picardi has called for the prosecution of businessmen and former officials in the case of Sarmiento's burial

For the federal prosecutor Franco Picardi, which intervenes in the judicial investigation of the one negotiated during the burial of the railway Sarmiento, there is no doubt: there is evidence that businessmen paid bribes to Kirchner government officials to carry out the unfinished millionaires public works.

Faced with this decision of the judge, Picardi's appeal states that entrepreneurs, among whom Angelo Calcaterra, cousin of President Mauricio Macri, should be prosecuted for the crime of corruption.

For Picardi, it has been proven that members of the companies Odebrecht, Iecsa, Ghella and Comsapagaron had accepted bribes. That is why he asked the accusation of active bribery Calcaterra and of Santiago Ramón Altieri, Mario José Blanco, Lorenzo Ghella, Riccardo Dina, Gianvincenzo Coppi, Mario Cenciarini, Alejandra Kademián, Spain Manual, Diego Alonso Hernández, Pablo Guillermo Previde, Augusto Adur, Juan Ramón Garrone, Roberto Fabián Rodríguez and Diego Luis Pugliesso.

Prosecutor also appealed against Martínez De Giorgi's lawsuits against employers Héctor Javier Sánchez Caballero (IECSA) and Hector Ramón Castro (COMSA) that the judge had found it responsible for the crime to offer gifts to a public official. Picardi believes that they should be prosecuted for active bribery.

In his appeal of more than 100 pages, the prosecutor badured that in the case it is proved that the members of the consortium companies that won the call for bids to bury the Sarmiento paid bribes to officials of the Federal Planning Ministry led by Julio De Vido, to obtain the attribution and continuity of millionaires public works. The beginning of the criminal maneuver took place with the direction of the tender offer in agreement between former officials and businessmen.

As part of the broad appeal, Picardi also requested that the companies Odebrecht and Ghella be seized for the sum of 300 million pesos, the company Comsa for 100 million pesos and Calcaterra (for the sale of the majority shares of Iecsa) for the sum of 249 million pesos.

As described by the prosecutor, the payment of a bribe was carried out in two stages.

The first was before the award, in which it was determined that the companies Iecsa and Comsa had made improper payments to the then Secretary of Transportation. Ricardo Jaimevia a non-existent consulting company. These payments were channeled through the Caesa Ghost Society through Manuel Vázquez, Jaime's historical leader and business leader. According to the prosecutor, on this occasion, payments amounted to nearly one million pesos.

The second step started once the work was awarded and the payment system was perfected because, as the judicial investigation indicates, companies were used. at sea move the money. It was established in the trial that nearly five million dollars have been sent to the Principality of Andorra. According to Picard, the vehicle was a fictitious contract between the four companies awarded the contract and the Spanish company DSC. Odebrecht used this signature to pay bribes to works obtained in other Latin American countries.

This maneuver was badyzed by the Federal Revenue Administration – under the direction of Macri – following an inspection requested by the Prosecutor General's Office of the UTE and carried out by the companies having won the call for bids. It has been proven that the Spanish company has not provided any services to the aforementioned UTE. And that the contract with the Spanish company DSC was only a simulation to hide bribes millionaires to officials.

It was possible to follow the route of money sent by the companies Iecsa, Odebrecht, Ghella and Comsa abroad and it was determined that she had arrived in Uruguay through the intermediary Sabrimol Trading Company, to be withdrawn in cash.

In this maneuver, the prosecutor places the businessman Jorge "Corcho" Rodríguez as intermediary between the former officials, José López, former secretary for public works, and Roberto Baratta, former under-secretary at the Ministry of Planning .

Due to the existence of this maneuver, Picardi asked that it be handled through inconsistent negotiations and pbadive bribery to Jaime, Baratta, López and Juan Pablo Schiavi, who replaced Jaime in 2009 in the transport secretariat. The judge had prosecuted them for the offense of negotiations incompatible with the civil service. Picardi asked that Vázquez and Rodríguez be prosecuted as necessary participants in the bribe, as he considers them to be intermediaries in paying bribes.

The prosecutor argued that "bribes would have tended to guide the allocation of underground public works and, in the future, to accelerate, unlock and ensure the disbursements and the specific different sections of continuity, depending on the progress of the work, for the benefit of the successful bidders. "

Picardi appealed the prosecution for the offense of non-compliance with the duties of a public official dictated by Martínez De Giorgi for former officials Rafael Llorens, Pablo Campi, Graciela Cavazza, Valeria Pomodoro and Yolanda Eggink . For the prosecutor, it is proven that they committed the crime of negotiations incompatible with the exercise of a public office.

Regardless of the evidence that these former officials participated in the management of the works and that they must answer for the crime of negotiations inconsistent with the exercise of a public office, Picardi asked to deepen the investigation to be able to determine the possible receipt of bribes from the former minister of Vido and Llorens, Campi, Cavazza, Valeria and Eggink.

Picardi also appealed dismissals of Julián Vázquez, Mariano Vázquez and Marta Margarita Domínguez, son and wife of the main defender of Ricardo Jaime and members of the CAESA corruption distribution company. For the prosecutor, the family of Vázquez must answer as a participant in the bribe.

In support of his appeal, the Prosecutor took into account e-mails seized from Odebrecht company executives, billing for services not provided, account numbers, unjustified transfers of funds, bank statements. . Also the plea agreement signed by the Odebrecht law firm with the United States authorities, information provided by the AFIP, the General Inspectorate of Justice, the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic and the sequestered documents during searches carried out in the companies under investigation. In addition, the information that contributed to the case was taken into account on the basis of Odebrecht's research in other countries.

Picardi said: "I will reiterate once again, as a reference for the weighting I propose, that the United States Department of Justice has proved that, in Argentina alone, Odebrecht had paid thirty-five million dollars (35,000,000 USD).) Bribes to Argentine officials, in view of the false award of public works, and thus benefited from economic profitability. Approximately two hundred and seventy-eight million dollars ($ 278,000,000), that is, bribes accounted for only 12.5% ​​of total profits earned by entrepreneurs due to the misallocation of public works, ie, following the same criminal plan, civil servants then received undue benefits amounting to 35 000 000 USD, and entrepreneurs for USD 278 000 000 ".

The prosecutor considered in his appeal that the investigation could be deepened – and perhaps even detect new defendants – the signing of the agreement with Brazil, approved by Martínez De Giorgi, to access the information of the repented in the Lava Jato case. In this way, the Argentine public prosecutor will be able to use the testimonies obtained in Brazil in which he indicates with name and first name the recipients of the bribes.

It is room II of the federal chamber that decides whether the criterion of the judge or the prosecutor prevails.