Following the trial on the merits followed by the six involved in the notorious Odebrecht case, the interrogation of Marcelo Hofke, a key witness presented by the Public Ministry, with whom he tries to prove that the company paid bribe 92 million USD to be favored with state works.
Hofke, who served as manager of the Brazilian company in the Dominican Republic, told the first collegiate court in the national district that he was unaware that the bribe had been paid in the country.
However, he acknowledged that they had hired a sales representative in the country, who exercised his representation through their companies, citing defendant Ángel Rondón.
When asked by one of Rondón’s lawyers, if in the interrogation conducted by the then Attorney General of the Republic, Jean Alain Rodríguez and the head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Administrative Corruption (Pepca) in 2017, he came to say that bribes were committed in the country, he answered no.
He stated in court presided over by Gissel Pérez Méndez that the payments had been made to Odechecht’s commercial representative in the country (Rondón) for the services provided since 2001.
“We are not aware of the payment of a bribe or the name of the person who served as an intermediary for such purposes … what we recognize is that we have a sales representative employed in the Dominican Republic, who exercised our representation to Through his companies , who is Mr. Ángel Rondón Rijo “, he argued.
The witness from the Public Ministry also said that he did not have access to documents or information, indicating some names of the civil servants who would have received a bribe from the construction company.
He said he did not participate in the agreement between the General Prosecutor’s Office and Odrecht as a result of the scandal, nor did he participate in the legal agreement between the United States, Brazil and the Brazilian construction company.
The witness has already been questioned by the Public Ministry, which could question him again after the defendant’s defense is over.
The interrogation ended on Thursday afternoon and will continue next Monday at 2:00 p.m.
Three witnesses
So far, three witnesses from the Public Ministry have been heard: Mauricio Dantas Bezerra, María Eugenia Batista and Rodrigo Maluf Cardoso.