Ex social security boss questioned over Odebrecht bribery
GUILLERMO SáezLlorens, former Social Security (CSS) director, went to the Special Anti -Corruption Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday Jan 25 for questioning over the alleged payment of bribes by Odebrecht.
SáezLlorens, is already under investigation by anti -corruption prosecutors over other alleged bribery irregularities during his term in office.
SáezLlorens said that he went voluntarily to the Prosecutor’s Office and said that he was not afraid of being questioned.
“I have not participated in anything with Odebrecht. We never had a contractual relationship or a public act with them,” he said.
He added that he went to the Special AntiCorruption Prosecutor’s Office to find out exactly what this investigation is about reports La Prensa
he also stated that he stopped being linked to the company Promotora y Desarrollo Los Andes in September 2008. That company has been linked to the bribes.
“I was the director of that society when I worked at Grupo Suárez, at the beginning of a project , but I left it in September 2008, long before the last government began,” he said.
On Tuesday The Public Prosecutor Tuesday ordered the investigation of 17 people in connection with the Odebrecht case, including Sáez Llorens.
Odebrecht has admitted to paying $59 million in bribes to local politicians and officials.
Meanwhile Riccardo Francolini , former president of the state owned bank, Caja de Ahorros, who is in preventive detention over his alleged role in a bank corruption scam, took out a full page advertisement to claim non-involvement with Odebrecht and complaining that his detention was “political persecution.
Francolini was a member of the inner circle of ex-president Ricardo Martinelli.