The AN studies the extradition to Guatemala of the alleged intermediary of a bribe for the expansion of Puerto Quetzal

He would be part of a criminal group made up of former president Otto Pérez and his vice president Roxana Baldetti

MADRID, 5 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The National Court is studying this Monday the extradition to Guatemala of businessman William Anthony Schwank, claimed by the country as an alleged member of a criminal group that also included former president Otto Pérez Molina and his vice president Roxana Baldetti and who would have maneuvered to obtain the award illegal removal of an infrastructure in Puerto Quetzal. Schwank also testified as a witness in the 'Villarejo case'.

In its brief with provisional conclusions, to which Europa Press has had access, the Prosecutor's Office requests the handover of Schwank to Guatemala, considering that neither the claim nor the crimes contained therein are politically motivated, also assuring that the latter "have not prescribed" .

The Public Ministry highlights that the crimes committed are transnational organized crime and public corruption at the highest level, focusing in turn on the fact that "the damage to the national treasury is calculated at more than four billion dollars." "In addition to the involvement of the highest government officials, this case constitutes one of those with the highest social impact in Guatemala," he maintains.

Schwank is accused of "joining, approximately from February 2012 to April 2015, a criminal group" which also included former President Pérez Molina and his Vice President Baldetti "with the intention of obtaining illicit economic benefits, derived from the proposal made by the representatives of Grup Maritim TCB for the construction and management of a container terminal in Puerto Quetzal".

The same, indicates the Prosecutor's Office, "not only included the technical and legal aspects, but also the offer of a commission for an amount of 28,443,000 euros, for national and international managers." "It also included in the payment of said commission the President and Vice President of the Republic, and a percentage corresponded to the team of the Quetzal Port Company, identified as "the port team" within it was the claimed party," the letter states.

This team, adds the Public Prosecutor's Office, "had the function of circumventing the State Procurement Law, which regulates the purchase, sale and contracting of goods, supplies, works and services required by State agencies."

"The defendant participated as an adviser to the Quetzal Port company (state and autonomous entity) and received money (900,000 dollars) for managing the procedures so that the project concession was illegally awarded, evading the law," the Prosecutor's Office added.

It should be remembered that the defendant testified last October before the judge in the 'Villarejo case' after the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office demanded that he be questioned within the framework of the separate 'Pit' piece.

In it, the investigator tries to find out if the brothers Ángel and Álvaro Pérez Maura hired the business group of retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo, CENYT, to prevent the former from being extradited to Guatemala for his alleged involvement in paying bribes to Guatemalan authorities for that the Quetzal Container Terminal (TQC) obtained the contract to expand said port.

In his statement before Judge Manuel García Castellón, the defendant assured that Ángel Pérez Maura paid him between 1,500 and 2,000 euros per month through collaborators of the commissioner, in exchange for not collaborating with the Justice of his country, which was also persecuting the Spanish businessman.