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Former Minister and current
Congressman is investigated by authorities
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Ministry of Economy announced on
Thursday, that agents of the Judicial
Investigation Organization, raided the
Ministry's facilities, looking for more
pieces of evidence in a case linked to
former Minister Welmer Ramos-Gonzalez. Who
is currently a deputy of congress, for the
Acción Ciudadana party (PAC).
In a statement, Ministry officials said:
"because it is an open investigation where
a judicial process is carried out, we
cannot refer to the case."
According to the Prosecutor's office, the
search was done in the office of
Commission to Promote Competition, know as
Coprocom, to gather more evidence for the
investigation against Deputy
Ramos-Gonzalez. He is suspected of the
alleged crime of prevarication, also known
as skirting around the truth, while he was
the Minister of the Economy from 2014 to
2017.
The legal term prevarication is a crime
that consists of an authority issuing an
arbitrary resolution in an administrative
or judicial matter knowing that said
resolution is unfair and contrary to the
law.
According to Prosecutor's office, the case
was opened with a complaint filed in 2018
that "indicates facts of 2015, when
allegedly, the minister would have
nullified a penalty that Coprocom imposed
on a company, which was investigated for
alleged practices contrary to healthy
competition."
This is the second investigation against
deputy Ramos-Gonzalez.
On Wednesday, the Prosecutor's Ethics
office opened a complaint against
Ramos-Gonzalez. He is suspected of
committing the crime of traffic of
influence, in the controversial case of
cement importation from China, known as El
Cementazo.
The legal term Traffic of Influence, or
Influence Peddling, is the illegal term of
using one's influence in government or
connections with persons in authority to
obtain favors or preferential treatment
for another, usually in return for
payment.
According to the Attorney General's
office, Ramos-Gonzalez during his work as
Minister of Economy was linked to the
modification of some regulations. These
changes in the laws made it easier for
businessman Juan Carlos Bolaños to import
Chinese cement, with a loan from the Bank
of Costa Rica.
In these two cases, the deputy
Ramos-Gonzalez made a public statement
stating that he will resign his
Parliamentary Immunity rights, but he will
not resign from his job as a deputy.
The legal term Parliamentary Immunity,
also known as Legislative Immunity, is a
system in which members of congress are
granted partial immunity from prosecution.
In December 2017, Ramos-Gonzalez made
another public statement in which he said
that if there were any resolution of the
Prosecutor's Ethics office against him, he
would resign.
Based on Ramos-Gonzalez's statement,
President Carlos Alvarado said during a
press conference that "in my opinion on
this particular issue, Mr. Welber has to
honor his commitment made in December
2017," referring to the possible
resignation of the deputy.
Related to the Cementazo case, as A.M.
Costa Rica has been reporting, in June the
General Prosecutor 's office gave a brief
on the advance of that case.
The Prosecutor said that during
approximately 20 months, the agents had
conducted an investigation opening 22
criminal cases parallel to the main file
and the examination of 50,000 files
creating a list of 10 accused people.
Additionally, after analyzing the evidence
they requested five operations with raids
on 14 sites, have seized 18 records, and
interviewed 69 witnesses.
The Cementazo case is a political scandal
of suspicion of corruption that was
revealed by the media in 2017 where a loan
of $31.5 million from the Bank of Costa
Rica to the businessman Juan Carlos
Bolaños was denounced for irregularities.
The case gained traction after the
disclosure of a recorded audio
conversation between Bolaños and the
manager of the bank surnamed Quesada.
The investigations have uncovered an
alleged case of influence peddling and
questions the employer's relationship with
members of the government, including
deputies, the Supreme Court of Justice
authorities and the presidency, as well as
members of different political parties.
In summary, the bank loaned Bolaños $31.5
million in November 2015 to import cement
from China.
According to the Superintendent of
Financial Institutions, it is unknown what
the entrepreneur did with $12.3 million
that he did not use. He kept $12.3 million
in his accounts for six months before
returning it to the bank, the
investigation disclosed.
Other public banks also made loans to
Bolaños, who managed to obtain $45.5
million.
Bolaños was arrested on November 2017 and
detained until on May 2019 when a judge
ordered house arrest while the
investigations continue.
According to the Attorney General, Emilia
Navas Aparicio, "it is a complex case, not
only because of the number of suspects but
also because of the type of corruption
that is being investigated. And, because
it involves the government authorities."
"The people can rest assured the case is
well attended, adequately addressed and
processed and will be resolved with the
corresponding requirement, at the time
when the first phase of the investigation
ends. We had to work day and night to
recover time that had been lost by the
inaction of the past," said Navas.
Currently, the Attorney General's office
is investigating $36 million that appears
to be refunds of money made in 46
transactions.
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Should the Prosecutor speed up the
investigation because it may involve
government officials? We would like to
know your thoughts on this story. Send
your comments to news@amcostarica.com
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