Mexican government agreed not to bring charges against Odebrecht

Since 2017 , the government of Mexico made a commitment not to exercise civil, administrative, or criminal proceedings against members of the Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht for allegedly bribing officials of Pemex (Mexican Petroleums) in exchange for public-works contracts.

In a briefing issued last Thursday by the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) , the former head of the PGR, Raúl Cervantes Andrade , signed an agreement through which the government of Brazil vowed to share information on the Odebrecht investigation, though in exchange, Mexican authorities made a commitment not to exercise criminal proceedings against firm executives .

“These agreements were ratified by the Mexican government on three occasions: One on February 16 , and two times on June 14, 2017 ,” claimed the government body.

According to the Attorney’s Office, led by Alejandro Gertz Manero , the PGR gathered statements of three former directors of the Brazilian construction company: Marcelo Bahía Odebrecht, Luis Alberto Meneses Weyll, and Hilberto Mascarenhas Alves da Silva Filho , though the statements are confidential.

Furthermore, the Attorney commented that on May 2017, the PGR conducted interviews with three Odebrecht executives in Mexico: Helder Antonio Campomizzi, tender coordinator; José Vito Facciolla Junior, project manager, and Guillermo Antonio Suárez Solís, the company’s legal representative . Each of them provided evidence related to the Pemex-Odebrecht investigation in which Emilio Ricardo Lozoya Austin was accused of taking a bribe of USD$10.5 million .

The government body claimed that on April last year, it requested the National Migration Institute (INM) for migration records of Odebrecht officials in order to monitor their entry into/exit from the country.

Ever since the attorney’s office gathered the statement of former Pemex director Emilio Lozoya Austin , in which he refused to testify, not a single member of Odebrecht Mexico has been summoned to appear before the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The government body added that between May and September, 2018 , the PGR received financial information from Switzerland regarding money transfers related to the alleged bribes from Odebrecht members to Mexican officials in exchange of contracts. The information consisted of 3,239 sheets .

Shortly after, the PGR (now FGR) asked the National Center for Analysis, Planning, and Intelligence against Organized Crime (CENAP) to determine the network of ties, money transfers, deposits, and people involved in the case.

Two days ago, the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) informed that no information related to the Odebrecht case in Mexico will be disclosed any time soon, since the investigation is still ongoing.

Cemex: As corrupt as Odebrecht?

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