Citing corruption, US sanctions former Paraguayan president, bars ex Panama president from entering the country
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Loading... - Cardozo Carla
- 13 Feb 2023
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Two former Latin American presidents whose links to offshore dealings featured prominently in the Pandora Papers have been censured by different arms of the United States government this week over allegations of corruption.
On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Paraguay’s former president Horacio Cartes and four of his companies, and accused Cartes of engaging in corruption before, during and after his term as president.
“Cartes’ political career was founded on and continues to rely on corrupt means for success,” OFAC officials said in a statement, adding that Cartes has paid thousands of dollars to party members and public officials in exchange for loyalty and support. “Cartes continued to influence legislative activities after leaving office, targeting political opponents, and bribing legislators to direct votes in his interest.”
One of the sanctioned companies controlled by Cartes was revealed in ICIJ’s global investigation, the Pandora Papers. Dominicana Acquisition SA, owned by Cartes and his three children, was created in Panama in 2011 and owned an apartment in Miami and an account in a Paraguayan bank that belongs to the Cartes family. In 2021, Cartes’ legal advisor told ICIJ that the company was used to buy a Miami property and that it never had bank accounts. The advisor said the company was currently inactive after having sold the real estate. ICIJ partner ABC Color revealed that Cartes never included Dominicana Acquisition in his sworn statement of assets during the years he was president, from 2013 to 2018. He quietly amended his declarations in 2021, after journalists reporting on the Pandora Papers asked about the offshore entity. Read More…
