The former head of Ecopetrol, Ricardo Roa Barragán received two judicial news on the morning of Monday, September 7. While a judge denied the request to reopen a case involving a million-dollar helicopter service contract at the state company, the Prosecutor’s Office filed a request for a hearing in the second case in which Gustavo Petro’s ally is already charged.
Indeed, EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit established that he was summoned on October 30 for the filing of charges. Roa, who explored a possible plea deal with his defense in this case, will have to appear at two in the afternoon.
The charges
The date of the record of the action dates back to August 2021, but it was only notified now.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office the total excess of actual expenses would amount to 1.664 billion above the limits allowed by law.
For the first round, the established limit was 28.536 billion pesos, but it was detected that the campaign executed actual expenses of 29.924 billion pesos, revealing an excess of more than 1.388 billion pesos.
And for the second presidential round, the established limit was 13.347 billion pesos.
The Prosecutor’s Office managed to detect that in that contest expenses were recorded for more than 13.623 billion pesos, exceeding the set limit by a total of 276 million pesos.
Roa was in charge of controlling the expenses and reporting in Cuentas Claras, a function in which he allegedly committed irregularities.
According to the case prosecutor, these alleged irregularities would compromise electoral transparency and affect the principle of equality among the different competitors within the democratic process.
The evidence
Among the evidence the Prosecutor’s Office has, there were unreported expenses of 358,388,586 pesos corresponding to logistics services provided by security Jamaro Limitada and an advertising contract with a television channel.
“They would have been recorded as second-round expenses, despite corresponding to the first presidential round and not the second,” the Prosecutor’s Office stated.
(Check out all the articles from EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit here)
Additionally, expenses of more than 12 million pesos were found paid to Hoteles de la Recolecta SAS, corresponding to an event held on June 1, 2022, when the second presidential round was already underway, but it was recorded as if it belonged to the first round.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
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