Live
Audio Only
Several companies were raided and five individuals were arrested in Ecuador on Friday, including a relative of the Vice President, Jorge Glas, during an investigation into the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht's corruption scandal.
The arrests occured following Chief Prosecutor Carlos Baca's meeting with the attorney general of Brazil on Thursday to recieve new information solicited from plea bargain deals.
“Those detained and the raided companies are part of a wider web of organized crime that involved and had as its center the company Odebrecht,” Baca said to reporters, referring to the bribery scandal involving Brazil's largest construction company which has blossomed to implicate officials in at least 12 different countries.
During the raids, officials found an assortment of cash, luxury vehicles, jewels, weapons, and a check from Odebrecht for almost US$1 million.
Prosecutors have not released a list of names, however local media reported that one of the arrested is Ricardo Rivera, who is the uncle of Vice President, Jorge Glas.
“According to the information I have, a relative of mine is being investigated. Everything should be investigated and justice had,” the Vice President told reporters.
Glas has previously been accused by a fugitive former oil minister, Carlos Pareja Yanuzzelli, also known as Capaya, for alleged involvement in the Odebrecht corruption scandal.
The unsubstantiated claims that the leftist vice-president is complicit in the same corruption scandal that his administration has vowed to tackle has been denounced by former President Rafael Correa and other PAIS Alliance party leaders as an opposition attempt to undermine the progressive party.
Pareja is wanted in Ecuador on corruption charges and has fled to Miami.
“Odebrecht, the corrupt and corrupting company, apparently did as it pleased during its entire time in Ecuador,” said the recently inaugurated leftist President Lenin Moreno. Moreno has promised to tackle corruption in the country's politics.
Newsletter
