A second report on the Pandora Papers will be presented on Wednesday by Assemblyman Fernando Villavicencio
With six votes in favor, this November 5 the Constitutional Guarantees Commission approved the report on the investigation of Pandora’s papers, where it determined that the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso Mendoza, did not observe the ethical pact approved by popular consultation in the 2017, and which is related to the prohibition of holding public office due to having direct or indirect ties with companies that own assets or capital in tax havens.
In addition to the report of this table, the president of the Oversight Commission, Fernando Villavicencio, announced the presentation of a second document on an investigation carried out with his work team regarding Pandora’s papers and the alleged connection of President Lasso with the case.
The Pandora papers constitute a file leak published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which is related to fourteen providers of registration and administration services for companies and trusts in different countries, many of them which are considered tax havens.
The Constitutional Guarantees Commission in its recommendations determined that the non-observance by Lasso of the ethical pact of 2017 and the Organic Law of Application of the Popular Consultation is verified, “which constitutes the constitutional breach of the provisions of article 130, numeral 2 of the Constitution of the Republic due to a serious political crisis and internal commotion ”.
The Commission instructs the plenary session of the National Assembly to approve a resolution that provides for the President of the Republic to appear within a maximum period of eight days to comply with the delivery of the requested information and answer the questions.
It also asks that the plenary session of the Assembly approve a resolution by which the reservation of all the information that has been classified as reserved by the State institutions related to the transactions, assets and investigations in progress linked to the president, and linked, is lifted.
That the plenary session of the Assembly inform all the State institutions that the president has publicly and in writing renounced the secrecy of his accounts; in that sense, that it grant a period of 48 hours to the State institutions to deliver the information.
After the appearance of the first president, according to the approved resolution, the Constitutional Guarantees Commission will analyze said information and the results of said appearance and will present a report to the plenary session of the Assembly.
It is also recommended that a political prosecution be carried out against those who did not appear or did not provide the required information.
The Commission will forward the information to the State Attorney General, the State Comptroller General, the Internal Revenue Service and the Superintendency of Banks.
The legislators were installed at 09:00 and the 241 pages of the report presented by the president of the table, José Cabascango (Pachakutik), were read, in whose conclusions they indicate that, based on the information collected and the documentation sent to the Commission, it was established that there is a direct link between the president, as the majority shareholder of Corporación MULTIBG SA, with Grupo Financiero Banco de Guayaquil, which also acts as the controlling entity and which groups the companies together: Administradora de Fondos BG, Casa de Valores Multivalores BG, and Colari SA, Banisi and Banisi Holding, domiciled in Panama, among others.
That the data collected in the investigation carried out shows that in the shareholding structure of Grupo Economico Banco de Guayaquil-Corporación MULTIBG SA, the Lasso family (Lasso Mendoza and Lasso Alcívar) owns 90.2% of the group’s shares.
From the data collected, Guillermo Lasso is the majority shareholder of Grupo Economico Banco de Guayaquil-Corporación MULTIBG SA, therefore, all the decisions that the group has taken regarding national and international investments, creation of offshore in tax havens, creation of trusts in offshore and the tax regime must necessarily have the endorsement, consent and approval of Guillermo Lasso Mendoza to be legal and binding.
In the letter sent to the president of the Commission, the president states: “And regarding the three other entities mentioned in the journalistic note, the Panamanian bank Banisi and the trusts Bretten Trust and Liberty Trust, I confirm that I have no relationship with them. owned or managed ”.
However, the economic group Banco de Guayaquil, through Corporación MULTIBG SA, established in 2007 the Banco de Guayaquil Panama with 100% ownership of Corporación MULTIBG SA
That in 2011, the economic group Banco de Guayaquil decided to change the name of Banco de Guayaquil Panama to Banisi. In 2018, the economic group decided to transfer ownership of 50% of Banisi shares from Banisi Holding SA to the following holdings off shore: Morsett Honlding S. A., Deblen Overseas S. A., Rem Panamá Corp., Alamo Management Company Inc., Banderilla Capital Group S. A.
The report assures that, by virtue of the fact that Guillermo Lasso Mendoza, with data as of February 18, 2021, owns 39.6% of the shares of Corporación MULTIBG SA, he has a direct ownership relationship with Banisi and, therefore , with Banisi Holding SA; that he is the owner of Banisi’s shares and, consequently, with the entities offshore previously stated.
Consequently, it would be shown that the assertions of President Guillermo Lasso Mendoza do not conform to the truth. So that the chief executive has no ownership relationship with Banisi and with the entities offshore It would have been necessary to dispose of its shares in the GLM Mercantile Administration Trust, however, up to now the available information shows that Guillermo Lasso Mendoza maintains his possession of the GLM Administration Mercantile Trust shares.
In this context, the report states, President Guillermo Lasso would be subject to the prohibition established in article 4 of the Organic Law for the Application of the Popular Consultation carried out on February 19, 2017, as well as the inability established in the Article 7 of the aforementioned law, for the general elections of the year 2021, that is, the prohibition of occupation and performance of positions in the public sector to people who are direct or indirect owners of goods or capital, of any nature, in jurisdictions or regimes considered as tax havens.
Legislator Paola Cabezas maintained that the president lied to the country when he publicly stated that in 2017 he got rid of the companies offshore, but that when collecting the information, he realizes that this was done a month before he can be a presidential candidate.
That the Panamanian regulations generate a certain level of confusion on the part of President Lasso’s legal team, because they ensure that there is no breach because they got rid of the companies, however, there is an indirect link, because it is not that they sold the companies, because they did not there is no record of the sale, it seems that there was a transfer or a simulation. These are very clear elements, added the correista legislator, that could contemplate the breach of the Law of the Ethical Pact, but it could constitute a crime of perjury. For this reason, it is recommended to send the report to the Prosecutor’s Office and the Comptroller’s Office.
In the case of the Banissi company there is an indirect breach, because the rule says that public officials up to the fourth degree of consanguinity and second degree of affinity cannot have resources in tax havens.
Alejandro Jaramillo, coordinator of the Democratic Left bank, said that his political organization will not lend itself to persecute anyone, that it is time to build bridges and work together between the Assembly and the Executive, that the country needs tranquility and peace ; “He does not want him to be left without a National Assembly or without a president of the Republic, we need to create jobs, reactivate the economy and get out of the economic and health crisis.”
If there is a crime or not, there is a prior investigation and the entity that is responsible for conducting these investigations is the State Attorney General’s Office. Jaramillo insisted on pointing out that this process that is being followed in the Assembly should not be used as a tool of persecution.
Juan Fernando Flores, coordinator of the National Agreement Bank, commented that the report presented by the Constitutional Guarantees Commission does not take into account the discharges presented by the lawyers of the president, where several of the documents that have served as evidence disappear and where It is verified once again that there is no type of responsibility on the part of President Guillermo Lasso, nor any proximity to elements related to tax havens.
He warned that it will be a biased report with a political vision and with the intention of damaging the image of the president.
He said that his political organization and the Government have the peace and tranquility of the transparency with which the President of the Republic handles himself and that, above all, there have already been previous processes where the same group that today promotes the investigation tried to misrepresent the information to avoid the presidential candidacy of Guillermo Lasso.
He stated that his bench will make approaches with the Democratic Left and Pachakutik, which are part of the alliance, also with the PSC and the UNES bench, so that the plenary session of the Assembly is transparent and resolved to give the necessary tranquility. He called to wait for the vote on a report regarding the Pandora Papers case.
The legislator Victoria Desintonio, from the UNES correista bloc, commented that with all the appearances and the documentation that the commission has, evidence that there may be possible crimes of front manism, perjury and, additionally, tax evasion and avoidance on the part of the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso.
He announced that the report will be sent to the control institutions to carry out the work once the National Assembly can lift the secrecy. (I)
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