Colombian President Gustavo Petro asked the Attorney General to reopen an investigation into Corporacion Financiera Colombiana SA after the firms controlled by the billionaire Sarmiento family admitted to paying bribes to officials to get government contracts.
(Bloomberg) — Colombian President Gustavo Petro asked the Attorney General to reopen an investigation into Corporacion Financiera Colombiana SA after the firms controlled by the billionaire Sarmiento family admitted to paying bribes to officials to get government contracts.
The nation’s Foreign Affairs Ministry should also collaborate with the US and Brazil to determine what Corficolombiana’s admission amounts to in losses and reparations for the nation, Petro said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
The probe is linked to wide-ranging corruption around disgraced Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht SA (now known as Novonor) which admitted to bribing officials across Latin America to obtain contracts for projects. Corficolombiana, which had a minority stake in a highway project known as Ruta del Sol II, was accused, along with its partner, of bribing Colombian officials between 2012 and 2015 with more than $23 million to secure a contract to extend the road, according to the DOJ.
The nearly decade-old contracts fall within Colombia’s legal stability contracts, which are agreements to promote large investments in key sectors, including infrastructure, telecommunications, and “must be reviewed” under local law, Petro said.
Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores SA and its subsidiary, Corficolombiana, last week agreed to pay $40 million to the SEC to settle investigations and another $20 million to the DOJ to settle criminal charges.
READ: Billionaire Sarmiento’s Group to Pay $60 Million in US Probe
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