SANTO DOMINGO.-The Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, now “Novonor”, despite having committed to pay US$184 million over 8 years, has only paid US$60 million between 2017 and 2018, as a result of the agreement signed with the Attorney General's Office, for the bribes it admitted to paying in exchange for public works contracts.
In the leniency agreement signed by the then Attorney General, Jean Alain Rodríguez, and Odebrecht in 2017, the Brazilian company pledged to cooperate with the Justice system and compensate the Dominican State with US$184 million, based on the bribes it admitted to paying in the Dominican Republic, before judicial authorities in the United States, Brazil, and Switzerland.
The amount was to be disbursed gradually over a period of 8 years, through partial annual payments until January 2025, starting with an initial payment of US$30 million. However, this payment has not continued, and the construction company intended for the debt to the Dominican State to be treated as a normal loan after entering into a bankruptcy declaration process, the Public Ministry reported.
Regarding the remaining amount of the debt, the Brazilian company indicated that “the remaining sum (124 million dollars), under the Agreement, is recognized as an outstanding debt in the judicial financial restructuring process that the company is undergoing in Brazil.
Odebrecht committed to a compensation payment double the sum of US$92 million that the company admitted to having paid as bribes in the country, an amount that was negotiated taking as a reference Law 448-06 on Bribery in Commerce and Investment.”.
Apart from the payment of the money, Odebrecht committed to providing the Attorney General's Office with relevant and accurate information leading to the identification of those bribed, as well as the context and circumstances in which the payments were made, according to the agreement approved by the courts.
The content of the agreement is protected by the confidentiality established in article 290 of the Dominican Criminal Procedure Code.
The Odebrecht case, which ended a year ago with the acquittal of four of those involved and two sentences of 8 and 5 years in prison, is under appeal and did not include any code names that would shed light on those bribed.
Source: Listín Diario.
