The continuation of the trial of the Odebrecht case, in which six other defendants are facing charges of receiving bribes for US $ 92 million from the Brazilian company, is scheduled for 9:00 this morning. they would award him works contracts for the Dominican state.
The hearing held by Judges Jissel Taronger, Tania Iunis and Gisselle Méndez, will continue with the appearance of Maurici Dantas Bezerra, Odebrecht’s legal director in the country, who in his testimony last Friday explained how the company made its payments to third parties in order to obtain contracts for state works.
Dantas Bezerra explained that these payments were made through the address of “Structured Operations”, which was referred to during the process carried out in Brazil as the “direction of bribes”.
He expressed that this management used “offshore accounts”, such as Consultora de la Sud and “Landfield”, through which payments were made on behalf of the company. From there bribery payments were allegedly made to Angel Rondón, Conrado Pittaluga and the former Minister of Public Works, Víctor Díaz Rúa.
According to various journalistic archives, this division was moved from Brazil to the country in 2014, because it was understood that on this occasion in the Dominican Republic “there was a favorable climate” for them to be able to operate it. The Brazilian Supreme Electoral Court cites that in 2014 this company management alone moved between $ 650 million and $ 700 million.
interruptions
The lawyers of those involved in the case constantly objected when Dantas Bezerra answered the prosecutor’s questions, arguing that the interpreter “did not translate everything the witness answered.”
One of the most common interruptions by the defense was that “on several occasions during the trial the translator answered questions to the witness that were not part of the trial.”
The prosecution will present two other witnesses: Rodrigo Maluf Cardoso, a senior executive of the company in the country, and Marcelo Hofkke, who was appointed as general manager of the company in the country, just after the corruption scandal broke out. . He was questioned in 2017.
Defense attorneys say they will demolish key witness version
The defense lawyers for Ángel Rondón, Conrado Pittaluga and Víctor Díaz Rúa stated yesterday that they will apply a cross-examination to the witness Maurici Dantas Bezerra, through which they will highlight falsehoods, inconsistencies and manipulated conclusions that have been disseminated since the his appearance at the Odebrecht trial.
In a joint statement, the lawyers who make up the technical bars of the defendants said they will demolish not only the statements of Dantas Bezerra -who they say does not qualify to be a witness to the facts as he was not present in them- but also the manipulated versions that “invisible hands” issued to the media for the purpose of confusing.
“This witness, who plans to continue his testimony this Monday, will be subjected to a wide battery of questions that will break the script with which he came to the country to lie, offer inaccurate information and pilgrims, who scratch the perjury before of court, ”they say.
They suggested that Dantas Bezerra, presented by the public prosecutor as a witness, did not talk about what he had seen or heard, but about versions that he had learned indirectly from other written sources, without having direct knowledge of the facts he cites about alleged bribes.
The technical defenses of Rondón, Pittaluga and Díaz Rua are made up of Emery Rodríguez Mateo, Jose Miguel Minier A., Fernán L. Ramos Peralta, Ramon Emilio Núñez, Víctor Manuel Martínez Ferreira, Laura Yisell Rodríguez Cuevas, Miguel Valerio Jiminián, Santiago Rodríguez Tejada, Edward Veras Vergas, Conrad Pittaluga Vicioso, Manuel Alejandro Rodríguez, Joaquín Antonio Zapata Martínez, Eric Raful Pérez and Carlos Pérez Vargas.