Meetings To Make Payments, Purchases Of Items In The United States Are Details Of The Las Torres Case Discovered Through Versions | Politics | News

Because it is believed to be on a CD sent by the United States Department of Justice for the trial investigating the crime of delinquency organized in the Las Torres case, there would be important data related to the facts being investigated, The prosecution is asking the judge in the case, Felipe Córdova, of the National Court of Justice, to authorize the recognition, opening, exploitation, analysis, extraction, transcription and materialization of the information in the device.

The information is part of the international criminal justice assistance provided by the United States Department of Justice to the Attorney General of Ecuador. The request to dematerialize the information on the device is part of the first impetus in the case that a criminal structure operating in the Office of the Comptroller General of the State, Petroecuador and the General Secretariat of the Presidium of the Republic is being investigated.

The main businessman in the Las Torres case is now free in the US.

His brother Esteban Celi is also being prosecuted together with the controller Celi; the former Secretary General of the Presidency José Agusto Briones, his brother Luis Agusto Briones; Natalie Cárdenas, former advisor to former Petroecuador manager Pablo Flores; Silvia L., Ángelo R., Andrés L. and Elsie Cueva, 68 years old.

Information about the Las Torres case comes from the United States, because Ecuadorians Raúl de la Torre, a relative of the controller Celi and former Petroecuador official, and real estate businessman Roberto Barrera were convicted in that country. Both agreed in that country to mediate in the payment of bribes in a corruption network in Petroecuador.

Raúl de la Torre and Roberto Barrera are two names that appear in all versions and information that exists in them the Las Torres file. For example Pedro Crespo, shareholder of the company Nolimit, presented a version in this case that was used by the Attorney General, Diana Salazar, as one of the 16 elements to formulate charges against the now nine defendants.

Crespo recalled that Barrera and De la Torre appeared on the scene at the end of 2018 with José Luis de la Paz, representative of the Nolimit company, who was arrested in the United States and confessed to paying $ 8.8 million in bribes Petroecuador contracts. According to the version, the first two offered to manage the payments pending from Petroecuador.

Nolimit, a Petroecuador contractor, had to pay payroll for the work done, but that these take place from the oil company state was required to have favorable CGE reports. There, the structure came into effect by offering to clean up or delete the auditor’s reports in exchange for payment of a bribe to be delivered to, for example, De la Torre.

Versions of CGE officials refer to direct requests from the controller (s) Pablo Celi to dispel glosses in the Las Torres case

Confirming a favorable report or the fading of a shine, Petroecuador gave way to release the resources it has in this case to Nolimit. From the parquet supposes that at least five glosses related to Nolimit for about $ 13 million have disappeared by direct order of Pablo Celi.

Pedro Crespo, shareholder of Nolimit, said in his version that De la Torre and Barrera would have asked for the money to be payable in cash in Ecuador, but shareholders proposed transfers USA. After that meeting in the United States where the payments took place, Raúl de la Torre told Nolimit shareholders that he had arrived in that country with no money and asked for $ 30,000 in cash.

Some of the purchases for De la Torre are said to have been made in Miami with a credit card from one of the shareholders. Among the objects that must be They would have bought a Rolex watch for $ 13,000 and two purchases for $ 5,000 each from stores of clothing and electronic devices. According to Crespo, all receipts are and vouchers of those purchases were turned over to the United States authorities.

Finally, Crespo responded to the prosecutor’s question for the names of the beneficiaries of the money Raúl de la Torre was to receive. which De la Torre himself mentioned to “Mr. Esteban Celi, who I know is an uncle, to Mr. Pablo Flores, to Mr. José Agusto Briones of the names I remember.”

Businessman Roberto Barrera in his version shown last Monday before the prosecution said it was Raúl de la Torre, who introduced him in mid-2018 as a friend of José de la Paz; While Pedro Crespo said he was with De la Paz when he was introduced and two other people he didn’t know.

Barrera denied having any financial or business connection with De la Paz, but acknowledged that at a meeting in which he intervened he was because José Luis de la Paz Raúl de la Torre had offered a commission for a favor of a payment. The meeting would have been to indicate how they were going to pay and they discussed topics he was also unfamiliar with. (I)