Uruguay has complicated "Corcho" Rodríguez in the investigation of the bribes of Odebrecht

Jorge "Corcho" Rodríguez adds other legal problems. The Uruguayan anti-money laundering unit has detected new indications placing it as the true owner of Sabrimol Trading, a company that

Odebrecht

used to channel millions of dollars in kickbacks to the environment of the former minister

Julio de Vido

, according to the copy of this report obtained by LA NACION.

These new indications contradict the defense that the "Corcho" Rodríguez used before the Argentine justice to detach from the local chapter of "Lava Jato". He stated that he had nothing to do with Sabrimol Trading, despite the fact that former Odebrecht leaders have identified him in Brazil – by his name and nickname – as one of the alleged intermediaries bribed Argentine officials of the time.

But now, and in direct contradiction to Rodriguez's defense, the Uruguayan authorities have detected emails and documents of 2014 in which their secret relationship with Sabrimol Trading was explicit. That is to say, by paying the latest bribes for public works projects in Argentina, years before the local chapter of "Lava Jato" and any journalistic or judicial allusion linking "Cork" to these Bribes broke out.

The conclusion came from the hand of Sabrimol Trading's visible manager, the Uruguayan accountant Carlos Dentone. On June 9, 2014, he had to explain to Banco Itaú in Uruguay that he was presiding over this company, but he was actually the "representative of one of the owners of this company, Mr. Jorge Ernesto Rodríguez".

Why has Dentone informed you of this sensitive information about Itaú? Because the bank asked for explanations on several registered money transfers to and from the account that Sabrimol Trading was operating in this entity and which has attracted the attention of its antilavado compliance managers.

According to Dentone, these were "transfers for the purchase of the property indicated in the attached document" to your e-mail address. It is the 33rd floor of the "Torre Alem Plaza" building, located in the city of Buenos Aires, that the "Corcho" Rodríguez acquired with money spent by Sabrimol Trading and his company twin, Latin Financial.

How did Dentone demonstrate to Itaú that he was working for Rodriguez and that this money was used for the purchase of the 33rd floor of the building located at the corner of Buenos Aires Leandro N avenues Alem and Córdoba? He handed them copies of the "Offer Agreement" that Rodriguez presented with his signature to the vendors Felipe Gustavo Yankelevich and Víctor A. González on January 16, 2014, and their response on March 10 2014., whose copies also obtained THE NATION.

"We sold a company that had this apartment as an badet, and we did it with the help of a representative who took care of everything, but I remember that one who bought it was the "Corcho & Rodríguez, who was already renting it," he confirmed. Yankelevich before the consultation of LA NACION. While his lawyer, Salvador Ruggeri, said that Rodriguez had acquired "in a personal capacity".

Located on a floor above the offices used by Odebrecht for years, the "Corcho" Rodriguez used this building as a center of operations to receive businessmen and relatives. He moved there with a secretary who, if he was not in the office or did not want to answer a call, was ordered to answer that he was "in the Ministry of Planning", according to several men from business and lawyers, told LA NACION.

Signs that add up

The documents that the Uruguayan anti-money laundering unit sent to Federal Judge Sebastián Casanello add other clues that unite Rodríguez to Sabrimol Trading. Among others, the "agreement" signed by this company with the Dutch company Van Oord, aimed at launching an international tender for the dredging of the Rio de la Plata in the island of Martín García . In this act, it was clearly stated "that" it is essential in this contract that the relations with the highest authorities responsible for the tender are personally maintained by Mr. Jorge Rodríguez ".

Who were the "highest authorities" of the government in charge of this call for tenders? Perhaps the minister De Vido, or responsible for his environment, as in the work of Odebrecht? Why was it "essential" to the contract that Rodriguez served as an intermediary between Van Oord and the government? Or were their fees a "screen" for something different ?, as the researchers believe.

To this document is added the testimony of a woman who had asked to be accepted as a "protected witness" by the Uruguayan judiciary in 2014, but whose statement remained in the shadow until the end of the year. LA NACION reveals it in March of this year. He stated that Rodriguez had entrusted Dentone and his partner, Martin Molinolo, with the management of Sabrimol, which he had reduced to a facade. "They had to launder the money that came in [a Sabrimol] to make bills that did not exist [y] that & # 39; themselves [armaban] in contracts that did not exist, purchases of helicopters that did not exist ".

"The money, after entering the country," added the former Dentone employee with reference to Uruguay, "they wasted, then went to what was needed for the farm [de Rodríguez en Punta del Este], Sabrimol's fees were paid in [la] the free zone and the bulk of the money went to the caves of Buenos Aires. It was the black money that came to Argentina to make [pagos] to many people in politics ".

However, before every LA NACION consultation, Rodríguez denied being the hidden owner of the Uruguayan companies involved in the bribes of Odebrecht. "Everything was born of an error: neither Sabrimol Trading nor Latin Financial are mine," he said. "They are from Messrs. Dentone and Molinolo, and that's what I said when I was summoned by the courts.The alleged signatures with which they wanted to grant me Sabrimol proved to be false, even though Sabrimol's bank account was managed jointly by Rodney Rodrigues, not with me, "he said, referring to the former number one of Odebrecht in Argentina.

But prosecutor Federico Delgado has reached another conclusion. With the equipment of the Uruguayan Anti-Money Laundering Unit in his hands, he said that the tests "only locate Jorge Ernesto Rodríguez not only as the owner of Sabrimol Trading, but also that he used the funds of Latin Financial LP acquisition of shares and badets entering their personal badets, "he said. "That is why, from the Office of the Prosecutor, there is no doubt that Rodriguez, at the time the facts took place under investigation, acted as the owner and beneficiary of the two mentioned companies." That is to say, companies that Odebrecht had admitted to have coincided with the Argentines.