El País: Andorra investigates a bribery network with the Calderón hydroelectric plant
According to the documents to which the journalists from The countrythe lawyer Mauricio Cort would have operated as a key piece in a mechanism for paying bribes that would make it difficult for construction companies to benefit from public awards.
Mexico City, November 22 (However).- An investigation by the police of Andorra reveal an alleged gear payment of bribes linked to the Hydroelectric Power Plant “La Yesca” -one of the highest in the world with a generation capacity of 750 megawatts- of the former president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa (2006-2012), published this morning in the Spanish newspaper The country.
in a text Signed by the journalists José María Irujo and Joaquín Gil, it is shown that the project fully developed in the PAN administration would have cost one billion dollars, 30 percent more than the initial budget.
According to an opinion of the Andorran police cited by the two journalists, an enigmatic report prepared by the lawyer Mauricio Cort, a Spanish and Panamanian citizen, obscures the colossal work of the former Mexican president.
The journalists describe that the shadows hang over a supposed advisory document for which Cort received three million dollars, an amount he received in Andorra in November 2012, when Felipe Calderón inaugurated a dam in Jalisco that doubled the size of the pyramid of Cheops of Egypt.
The Madrid-based newspaper mentions that four mysterious Mexican companies would have transferred the three million from the report to an account of the lawyer in the Pyrenean principality. These are the commercial companies Comercializadora y marketing Maja SA, Internacional Transfer Gamba SA, Ramra consulting SA and Asesoría y edificación integral Rutgal SA.
Gil and Irujo’s investigation indicates that the Andorra police question Cort’s report, which was titled “Risk study to determine the probable maximum loss of the La Yesca hydroelectric project.” In said document, the lawyer maintains that the firms that paid for the work were instrumental.
The agents of the police investigation, according to the documents to which they had access to the journalists from The countryThe lawyer would have operated as a key piece in a mechanism for the payment of bribes that limited construction companies to benefit from public awards.
As consulted by The countryThree months after collecting his mysterious consulting study in Andorra, Mauricio Cort sent 80 percent of the money to a deposit at the Panama Savings Bank in the name of the trust services company Assets Trust and Corporate Services Inc.
“The funds were later used to acquire a property in that Central American country at Ocean Reef, a luxury residential complex with a yacht club and heliport, and to invest in a ‘real estate project’ on Pedro González Island, located in the so-called Las Pearls of the Gulf of Panama”, says the Spanish newspaper.
in accordance with The country, the Andorra police emphasize that the construction company ICA (Associated Civil Engineers), who won the award of “La Yesca”, was “preferred partner in various tenders in Mexico of the Spanish FCC”. And that the companies Arados de Plata and Neecel Corp, which appear as account holders in the BPA where Cort received his report, “would have received funds from FCC.”
The journalists add that the enigma of the three million dollar report from “La Yesca” adds to the history that corners the enigmatic lawyer. A lawyer who was already sentenced in 2018 by a Panamanian court to 48 months in prison for moving commissions from Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction giant that perpetrated the largest bribery scheme in America. The former lawyer of this company Rodrigo Tacla linked Cort to the Spanish Anti-Corruption Prosecutor with alleged FCC payments to the children of former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli through compensation, a mechanism used for money laundering.
It should be remembered that the “La Yesca” hydroelectric was developed under the Financed Public Works (OPF) scheme by the consortium formed by the companies Ingenieros Civiles Asociados, Promotora e Inversora Adisa, La Peninsular Compañía Constructora and Constructora de Proyectos Hidroeléctricos, which was the winner of the respective International Public Tender.
The Hydroelectric Power Plant, located in the bed of the Río Grande de Santiago, municipality of La Yesca, in Nayarit, was a project completely developed in the administration of former president Felipe Calderón, since its construction began on September 27, 2007, its first unit came into operation in October 2012 and the second began in November of the same year.