On account of an order issued by a judge in Barranquilla, as part of the investigation being followed in Colombia against Àlex Saab for money laundering operations, several country banks are at a legal crossroads.
TIME to establish that in a reserved hearing, that it began at 8 a.m. on February 11th and lasted at least 2 hours, his defense asked for and gained access to information that has the ‘reserved’ sign.
(We invite you to read: Álex Saab’s family moved from Caracas to Moscow)
Nicolás Maduro’s well-known ironhead is accused of having taken about 16.4 million dollars out of the country, simulating the figure of export refunds, most of them in Venezuela, through the company Shatex SA, of which had 84 percent shares and its legal representation.
(You may be interested: For Cape Verde, Saab is not a diplomat and has no immunity)
For the Prosecutor’s Office it is clear that this firm had an exponential growth of 923 percent and that it made millions in exports that never entered the country. In fact, there is talk of a manipulation of their accounting and the concealment of their economic reality.
Camilo Bocanegra, Alex Saab’s new lawyer, says he rules out any negotiations at this stage of the process.
Right to defense?
Although Saab now claims to be a Venezuelan and plenipotentiary ambassador of Maduro’s dictatorship in Africa, in this case he is presented with a Colombian certificate.
(Also: Alex Saab was transferred to a secret location, heavily guarded)
At the hearing, to which EL TEMPS had access, his trusted lawyer, the criminal Camilo Bocanegra, said that he passed, without luck, several rights of petition to a ministry, to the Dian already banks, only · bidding information that he describes as a driver, necessary and relevant to defend his client, today imprisoned in Cape Verde and waiting for his extradition to the United States to be defined.
This is the act in which access to the information was requested.
“The confidential information is required to develop our defense theory and for the accounting forensic opinion to be presented as evidence in the oral trial
“The confidential information is required to develop our defense theory and for the forensic accounting opinion that will be presented as evidence in the oral trial,” said criminal Bocanegra at the hearing, and ratified it to THE WEATHER.
And he said he went to a constitutional judge because neither Dian nor any of the banks wanted to give him the information, alleging that it is reserved.
(In addition: Cape Verde launches warnings on extradition of Alex Saab in May)
“They were given a period of 15 days and one of the banks already responded to me. In addition, neither the Public Prosecutor’s Office, nor the Public Ministry nor the victims’ lawyer (Bancóldex) opposed my request,” explained Bocanegra. .
The Specialized Directorate for the Extinction of the Right of Dominion, with the support of the ICC, imposed precautionary measures on six (6) properties of the businessman Alex Naim Saab Morán
Attorney General of the Nation
‘System damage’
For Guillem Puyana, a criminal expert in financial crime, accessing information on Suspicious Operations Reports (ROS) is against the law.
“The ROS have no probative value, they are intelligence reports and they are only an exclusive guiding criterion for the Intelligence and Financial Analysis Unit (UIAF) and for the Public Prosecutor’s Office,” Puyana explained.
(In context: The US secret plan. So that Alex Saab does not escape)
And, in his view, the bail control judge had to deny access to this information, Because the defense can give it a use as evidence that the law excludes: “If this information has no value in court, then we need to see what the real purpose of violating the system so seriously is.”
In addition, it would be a damage to the banking system, in the face of international scenarios; opinion shared by financial intelligence experts consulted by this newspaper.
(Check here all the articles of the EL TEMPS Research Unit) Preparatory hearings for the trial of Alex Saab in Colombia begin on June 11, and his defense says it will not protect those who refuse to respond to the request, but will leave a record at trial.
RESEARCH UNIT
[email protected]
@UinvestigativaET