Prosecutor’s Office Ecuador Investigates the business of a Colombian businessman Alex SaabMy photos are allegedly from Nicolas Maduro, in which former Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa (2007-2017) will participate, said Assembly member Fernando Villavicencio on Sunday, January 2.
(I read here: Due to the spread of COVID-19, Alex Saab’s hearing in the United States has been postponed.)
The leftist parliamentarian told AFP that the accused body “has opened a preliminary investigation into the crime of embezzlement and other crimes mainly linked to Rafael Correa and high-ranking authorities in his government.”
(very: Maduro says the United States kidnapped Alex Saab and stabbed dialogues in Mexico)
Villavicencio, an anti-Korea journalist who was considered in his government a politically oppressed person, submitted a copy of the notification from the attorney general’s office to the National Assembly. The document indicates that an investigation into the “alleged crime of embezzlement” was launched on the recommendation of the Legislative Oversight Authority headed by the same representative.
What does the document say?
According to that committee, Saab has taken advantage of the Unique Regional Compensation System (Sucre), a virtual currency adopted by the countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of America (Alba) in 2009 to replace the dollar.
Currently, Alba consists of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. Ecuador left the bloc in 2018 and Bolivia a year later.
(You may be interested in: Alex Saab defies American justice: pleads not guilty and stands trial)
With its Colombian company Fondo Global de Construcciones, with a subsidiary in Ecuador, Saab negotiated the export of prefabricated homes to Venezuela for $350 million, in a process similar to that previously carried out from Colombia, all during the government of the late Hugo Chavez, Villavicencio explained.
Caracas paid in bolivars and the SABB Ecuadorean branch received dollars through the Ecuadorean Central Bank through the sucre system.
“Not a single door has been exported from Colombia and Ecuador has a shortage of this type of house,” Villavicencio said, adding that “it’s about illegal, fake and exaggerated operations.”
The legislator considered that Correa is part of the violations because he is “the direct author of this mechanism”, in reference to Sucre.
The former socialist ruler settled in Belgium shortly after his term expired in May 2017, and in Ecuador Justice sentenced him along with several of his former aides to eight years in prison, for taking bribes in exchange for contracts with various companies.
Saab was arrested in June 2020 during a stopover in Cape Verde and was extradited last October at the request of the US justice, which considers him an alleged figurehead of Maduro.
It alleges that it used the US financial system between 2011 and 2015 to launder illicit profits obtained, diverting $350 million from Venezuela, through accounts in the US and other countries.
France Press agency
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