And the United States tightens the knot of corruption in Petroecuador

In other words, I realized that between June 2011 and July 2019, during the government Former President Rafael Correa And part of the management Former President Lenin Morenocast down bribes To Ecuadorean officials using companies and bank accounts in the United States in exchange for contracts from Petroecuador for two companies (identified in the investigation as “Trading Company 1 and 2”) and the Asphalt Company.

These bribes were given, among other things, to Three Ecuadorean officials who have been identified as “Ecuadorean officer 1, 2 and 3”. The first, according to the description of the foreign investigation, whose name is not revealed, agrees with him Nielsen Ariasthe former director of international trade for Petroecuador between 2010 and 2017.

This is another piece of the massive puzzle of oil corruption from which other cases have emerged, such as the case of Vitol Corporation It was also revealed by American Justice in which they named “Officer 1” whose description again matches that of Arias. This former official’s lawyer, Maria Theresa Padron, said via an email that she had not been notified of the information about this new revelation.

while managing Pedro Merizaldi A disputed contract has been signed with Oman International Trade (OTI) which was also part of an investigation in the United States.

This is how the corruption scheme worked. Antonio and Enrique Perry Licaza They agreed with Trading Company 1 to pay bribes to officials to take advantage of the contract Petroecuador had signed with a state-owned entity in Asia, whose name has not been disclosed, but which the United States claims to know. In about June 2011, Trading Company 1 agreed with the Asian state-owned company to assume the risk and to retain the product purchased under any contract with Petroecuador to purchase oil. to pay bribes Covering the scheme, Enrique Pere signed a consulting agreement with Company 1 whereby they agree to pay a commission to the consultant for every barrel of Ecuadoreans that the company purchases from the Asian state-owned company through the contract with Petroecuador.

A similar scheme was used in favor of Company 2, only in this case it was done through a contract between the Ecuadorean oil company and a Middle Eastern state company, whose name has not been disclosed, but the United States claims to know. The scheme to cover up the bribes was much the same: a consulting deal with shell companies based in Curaçao.

In case Asphalt Company, agrees directly with Antonio Pere to pay him a commission if he can convince Petroecuador to award him an asphalt supply contract in an upcoming bidding process. This is how it went. After the award was awarded, Enrique Pere used the same framework again to cover the payment of bribes through an advisory agreement with a Swiss subsidiary of the Asphalt Company.