On June 9, the Attorney General’s Office announced the opening of a formal investigation against Gustavo Petro’s presidential campaign to determine whether or not there was illegal financing, after hearing some audios in which the outgoing Venezuelan ambassador, Armando Benedetti suggested that 15,000 million pesos would have entered the campaign of President Petro.
“In response to the information publicly known in recent days, the Prosecutor’s Office has an investigative line that is in charge of prosecutors delegated to the Supreme Court of Justice and the Specialized Directorate against Corruption, respectively”
In the statement, the Prosecutor’s Office warns that the investigative front is focused on determining whether crimes related to the financing of the 2022 presidential campaign, violation of electoral limits and other crimes that can be classified during the investigation, in which the prosecutors “They will direct their actions towards registered and non-registered people.”
“The investigative front is focused on determining whether crimes related to the possible illegal financing of the electoral campaign of the President of the Republic, Gustavo Petro Urrego, were committed. Here, possible responsibilities will be established in the crimes of financing electoral campaigns from prohibited sources, violation of electoral caps and others that can be classified.
The audios of Benedetti
“Nobody leaves me lying there for three hours, a man who held 100 meetings in a campaign, a man who got 15,000 million and now… I looked for all the money and you know it more than anyone, so that he went to the hotels, so that he would come here and everything else”, says Armando Benedetti in the audios published by Semana, where he also said, in an interview, that those who were behind that money “were not entrepreneurs”.
In the audios, Benedetti also threatened to reveal what he knows about the origin of the money that allegedly entered Petro’s campaign for financing.
From Colombia Humana they rejected Benedetti’s words, and assured that the financing of the presidential campaign was in accordance with the law and that they did not receive contributions from the outgoing ambassador in Venezuela, nor that they have a record that resources managed by him entered.
“The allegations of alleged resources that Mr. Benedetti would have managed to finance the presidential campaign of Dr. Gustavo Petro lack truth and are unfounded.”
They also clarified that the campaign’s accounting passed all the necessary audits and never received any notification of irregularities:
“Both the accounts and the income report for campaign financing were audited by three different instances: internal audit, party audit, and audit carried out by the National Electoral Council (CNE); all three verified compliance with all parameters, amounts and requirements established by current legislation, in strict compliance with legal provisions. These accounts have already been certified by the CNE.
The president of Ecopetrol, Ricardo Roa, who was the manager of Gustavo Petro’s presidential campaign, also spoke of Benedetti’s remarks: “No direct contribution or donation was ever received from the former ambassador.”
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The official said he regretted Benedetti’s statements and noted that all the filters and procedures for review, validation, registration, certification and issuance of the accounts were carried out, both for the consultation and for the first and second presidential rounds.
“The Plenary Chamber of the National Electoral Council has already ruled against these accounts that were reported on the platform and are certified, validated, recognized and ordered in all phases of President Petro’s campaign,” he added.
Roa also warned that the donations that entered the campaign were also recorded and total $150 million pesos, of which some were received in cash and others in kind.
“The only person authorized to collect or collect resources from banks or wherever, was the general manager. Through the general manager of the campaign, no direct contribution or donation was ever mobilized or received from former ambassador Armando Benedetti, nor from any of his referrals or any businessman,” the official clarified. with Infobae