Colombia’s Public Ministry will indict former presidential candidate Óscar Iván Zuluaga and his son, David Zuluaga, as part of the investigation into the corruption scheme set up by Odebrecht in the country.
In a statement released this Tuesday (13), the Colombian Public Prosecutor explained that he will ask for an imputation hearing to accuse him of the “crimes of falsification of private documents, procedural fraud and illicit enrichment of individuals”.
Zuluaga was a presidential candidate for the Centro Democrático party – founded by former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe – in the 2014 elections, in which he was defeated in the second round by then-president Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018).
The measures are part of the investigations of the Odebrecht case, the corruption scandal of the Brazilian multinational with ramifications in several Latin American countries.
According to the Public Ministry, Zuluaga would have received and not declared US$ 1.61 million that the Brazilian construction company gave him to cover the hiring of publicist Duda Mendonça.
Also according to the prosecution, this action would have violated “Article 109 of the Political Constitution of Colombia, which prohibits political parties, movements and significant groups of citizens from receiving funding from foreign individuals or legal entities for election campaigns.”
In addition, the Colombian MP states that “the evidence shows that Óscar Iván Zuluaga was aware of the illegal contribution and presented an account of such omission before the National Electoral Council (CNE), in order to obtain a replacement of votes for more than 25 billion pesos (about US$ 6 million today), as it actually happened”.
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