Andorra investigates a bribery network with Felipe Calderón
The The Andorran police have revealed a possible relationship of payment of bribes related to the “La Yesca” Hydroelectric Power Plant of former President Felipe Calderónas reported by journalists José María Irujo and Joaquín Gil in the Spanish newspaper The country.
According to the article, the project developed in its entirety during the six-year term of the PAN it would have cost a billion dollars, that is, 30% more than initially budgeted.
The journalists cite a police opinion that includes a report prepared by the lawyer Mauricio Cort, for which he would have received 3 million dollarssame that were deposited in an account in Andorra.
The investigation assumes that That money would have been deposited through four mysterious Mexican companies:
- Distributor and marketing Maja SA
- International Transfer Gamba SA
- Consulting Ramra SA
- Advice and integral construction Rutgal SA
According to the Spanish newspaper, the Andorra police questions the lawyer’s report, entitled “Risk study to determine the probable maximum loss of the La Yesca hydroelectric project”, where he maintains that the firms that paid for the work were instrumental.
Therefore, the police officers considering that Cort would have operated as a key piece in a bribery payment mechanism that he would cover so that construction companies would benefit with public awards.
Sources consulted for the investigation reveal that Three months after collecting his suspicious consultancy study in Andorra, Cort deposited 80% in a Panama Savings Bank on behalf 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”, mentions the newspaper.
add that Andorran police point out that the construction company Ingenieros Civiles Asociados (ICA), who won the award of “La Yesca”, was “preferred partner in various tenders in Mexico of the Spanish FCC”.
Furthermore, it is presumed that the companies Arados de Plata and Neecel Corp, which appear as account holders in the BPA where Cort received his report, “they would have received funds from FCC.”
a dark past
Also, journalists Irujo and Gil explain that the lawyer has an enigmatic and controversial record.
In 2018 it was sentenced by a court in Panama to 48 months in prison for moving Odebrecht commissions, the Brazilian company that operated the largest bribery scheme in the Americas.
The former Odebrecht lawyer, Rodrigo Tacla, linked Cort to the Spanish Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, with his alleged FCC payments to the children of the former president of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli, through clearing operations, a mechanism used for money laundering.
The hydroelectric “La Yesca” was Developing under the Financed Public Works (OPF) scheme by the consortium made up of ICA, Promoter and Investor Asida, La Peninsular Compañía Constructora and Constructora de Proyectos Hidroeléctricos, the winner of the corresponding International Public Bid.
“The Tinder” is located in the bed of the Río Grande de Santiago, in the municipality of La Yesca, Nayarit. Its construction began on September 27, 2007 and its first unit came into operation in October 2012, while the second, in November of that same year.