After a compensation agreement offered by Emilio Lozoya to regain his freedom, Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) asked a federal judge to postpone a hearing to define whether or not to accept said compensation agreement for the Odebrecht and Agro Nitrogenados cases.
Before Judge José Artemio Zúñiga, a hearing in the Agro Nitrogenados case would take place this Monday where it would be defined whether Pemex would accept the reparation agreement, consisting of 10.2 million dollars (7 million 385,000 dollars for the Odebrecht criminal proceeding and 3 million 400,000 for Agro Nitrogenated).
Alejandro Rojas and Miguel Ontiveros, Lozoya’s lawyers, met privately at the North Reclusorio Criminal Justice Center with Pemex lawyers to exchange information on Lozoya’s proposed reparation agreement.
Subsequently, before Judge José Artemio Zúñiga, Pemex’s legal representatives requested that the hearing be deferred for two weeks, in order to gather information not contained in the agreement proposed by Lozoya’s defense.
With this mechanism, the former director of Pemex intends to get the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to suspend the two criminal proceedings against him and get out of the North Prison where he has been imprisoned since November 3.
Lozoya intends to make the payment of the 10.2 million dollars throughout this year, and pledge several properties, including a house in Lomas de Bezares and his wife’s house in Ixtapa, Guerrero.
On July 28, 2020, Judge José Artemio Zúñiga ordered Lozoya to be prosecuted for the crime provided for in Article 400 Bis of the Federal Penal Code, for operations with resources of illicit origin, in the form of acquiring real estate ( the house of Lomas de Bezares) within the national territory, with knowledge that the resources used come from an illicit activity (alleged bribes from the former owner of Altos Hornos de México, Alonso Ancira) with the purpose of concealing the origin or ownership of said resources in order to appear lawful.
Odebrecht case
The Federal Judiciary Council reported that Lozoya’s hearing for the Odebrecht case is being held for this Tuesday, although it could also be suspended for the same reasons.
The investigation by the FGR in this case blames Lozoya for having received bribes of millions of dollars from the Brazilian company in exchange for giving him construction contracts from Pemex.
It also mentions that Gilda Austin, mother of the former director of Pemex, received 185,000 dollars in her bank accounts and then 1,200,000 dollars that were used to buy a house in Ixtapa, Zihuatanejo.
According to the prosecution, Emilio Lozoya met the former director of Odebrecht in Mexico, Luis Alberto de Meneses Weyll, and favored him to obtain public works contracts. And that in 2012, when he was part of a presidential campaign, the former director of Pemex received a payment of 4 million dollars from Meneses Weyll, “and he told him that if he won he would have a position that would allow him to provide (to Odebrecht) public works contracts”.
Other high level politicians
The investigation in Mexico for the Odebrecht case, which began in 2017 in the past administration, is currently in a state of immobility, because the FGR has only been able to prosecute the former director of Pemex, Emilio Lozoya, and some other officials, without being able to reach to politicians of the highest level, as has been done in Peru, Guatemala and Brazil, said lawyers who have followed up on the case.
Daniel Torres Checa, a constitutional lawyer from the Pan American University (UP), and Javier Martin Reyes, a lawyer and political scientist from the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE), agreed that in the Odebrecht case, the FGR has shown signs of inefficiency by not being able to consolidate an effective process.
In our country, up to now, there has been no court ruling against politicians or businessmen in the Odebrecht case.
Only the Ministry of Public Administration has disqualified Odebrecht Engineering and International Construction of Mexico, SA de CV for 3 years and a fine of 543 million 488,615 pesos, although the sanction is in litigation in the Federal Court of Administrative Justice.
Office of the Attorney General of the Republic, body empowered
Federal Executive asks for damage to be assessed before accepting
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that he has not yet been informed about the reparation agreement proposed by the former director of Pemex, Emilio Lozoya, for the Odebrecht and Agro Nitrogenados cases, although he considered that before accepting, an authority must make an appraisal to know if the damages are covered.
In the National Palace, during his morning press conference, the president recalled that in the case of the criminal proceeding against businessman Alonso Ancira for the irregular sale of the Agro Nitrogenados plant, it was the Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF) which determined the amount of damage.
In the Lozoya case, López Obrador said that he has confidence in the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) within the negotiations that are being carried out for that case in the courts of the North Prison of Mexico City.
“It’s 10 million dollars, yes. You’re still going to see that, yet. (…) Because the prosecution can, of course, accept reparation for the damage and we also agree with that, because it means money that goes to the Institute to Return What Was Stolen to the People or money that goes to Pemex. For example, the refund for the overprices at the fertilizer plant, all of that goes to Pemex and from there we are helping the farmers so that they have free fertilizer. So, we do care about repairing the damage, nothing more than being fair.
“In the case, for example, of the repair of the damage by the fertilizer plant, Mr. Ancira, it is because there was an evaluation of the Superior Audit of the Federation and from there it was determined that more than 200 million dollars be paid.
“So, in the case of Mr. Lozoya, it has to be the same procedure, it has to be a competent authority that makes the assessment of the damage,” he stressed.