Colombian Attorney General Francisco Barbosa assured in Washington on Tuesday that the organization would 60 new charges As part of an investigation carried out corruption scheme of the Brazilian multinational company Odebrecht in the country.

“We will make a very important announcement on Thursday in Cartagena. with a prosecutor delegated to the Supreme Courtwhere we are going to formulate more than 60 new charges, ”said the head of the investigative body in the US capital.

Regarding this corruption scheme, Colombian President Gustavo Petro today ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “to use all means of legal cooperation with the governments of the United States and Brazil to establish damage and reparations that the recognition of the Aval Group brings to the Colombian state.”

According to prosecutor Barbosa, with the new charges it would be almost closes in Colombia Odebrecht scandal.

A senior official explained to reporters that when he started his job at the prosecutor’s office in 2020, he found that the process of this scandal was messy and to be unified.

Over 100 defendants

In addition, he recalled that ministers and other persons were accused of this corruption scandal, including ex-presidential candidate Juribista. Oscar Ivan Zuluaga as well as his son David Zuluaga.

Last June, prosecutors said they would charge Zuluaga with “crimes lie in a private document, procedural fraud and illicit enrichment of individuals.”

According to Barbosa, in the Odebrecht corruption case, there are about 110 charges including well-known former officials.

At the request of the head of the Colombian state, but without referring to him, Barbosa assured that judicial cooperation takes place between the prosecutor’s offices, which It is part of the judiciary, not the executive branch.

The most recent shock of the Odebrecht scandal came because President Petro ordered the United States and Brazil to seek legal cooperation to thoroughly investigate the corruption of the construction company and its relationship with the Aval Group.

Aval Group of Companies, owned by Luis Carlos Sarmiento Anguloone of Colombia’s richest men, is the majority shareholder of Corficolombiana, a company linked to the bribes paid to Odebrecht in the country for a contract to build the Ruta del Sol II motorway, which connects the center to northern Colombia. a country.

Last Friday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused the Aval Group “of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)”, for which this conglomerate agreed to pay $40 million to have the charges dropped, while Corficolombiana signed a “deferred prosecution” agreement under which it would pay $20 million.