The former presidents of Colombia Gaviria and Pastrana, dotted with the “Pandora Papers”

The ex-presidents colombians César Gaviria and Andrés Pastrana are featured in the report of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that revealed this Sunday that more than 30 world leaders hid fortunes of billions of dollars to avoid paying taxes.

Chapter of Colombia, in which the alliance between the newspaper El Espectador and the journalistic platform for the Americas CONNECTAS participated, includes 588 names of natural and legal persons in the country “Listed as real owners of companies” extraterritorial, including millionaires, ambassadors, former congressmen, family groups or those prosecuted by the courts, in addition to the two former presidents.

In the ICIJ investigation, called the “Pandora Papers”600 journalists participated who have examined 1.9 million documents.

SOCIEDAD DE GAVIRIA

About César Gaviria, who was president of Colombia Between 1990 and 1994 and he is the current director of the Liberal Party, it is indicated that in 2012 he and his brother Luis Fernando became the directors of the company MC2 Internacional SA, which had been registered on July 16, 2010 in Panama.

Over time, the Panamanian company became the sole shareholder of the Colombian company MC2 SAS ESP., A company dedicated to the commercialization, transportation, compression, storage and decompression of natural gas.

MC2 SAS ESP., Was established in 2006 by Luis Fernando Gaviria and, a year later, former President Gaviria joined the business as the majority shareholder.

“In 2010, according to documents from the Chamber of Commerce, the corporate structure of the company changed, the shareholders ceased to be natural persons and remained at the head of MC2 Internacional SA”, according to research published by El Espectador and CONNECTAS.

The documents revealed that in the following years “new partners joined, but César and Luis Fernando Gaviria have remained ”.

The ICIJ did not obtain a response when consulting the former president, but his brother did respond that it is “Inherent in public limited companies that their shareholders maintain the reserve regarding their condition of shareholders” So what “The financial and tax information of Colombian citizens is protected by the documentary reserve.”

MENTIONS TO PASTRANA

Former President Pastrana, who ruled between 1998 and 2002, appears, according to the investigation, as a beneficiary of the company Vanguard Investment Inc, registered in Panama, and in turn beneficiary of the Colombian company Salatina Puyana y Cía S. en C., which controls the total of the shares of the Panamanian company and manages its family assets.

According to the leaked documents, “Vanguard Investment Inc., acquired by Andrés Pastrana’s Colombian company, was registered on May 27, 2005 as a public limited company, with a capital stock of $ 10,000”, Because at that time the owner of the company was allowed to “Whoever had the stock papers in their hands.”

Although that regulation changed in 2016, since when is it mandatory to put the real name of the company that owns the shares, “The name of the former president of Colombia as a beneficial owner of Vanguard Investment it remained absent from public records “adds the research.

Although in public records there is no trace of the former president Colombian, the investigation revealed “a 2016 form that concludes that the true owners of the company are Andrés Pastrana and his wife, Nohra Puyana”, And the goal is “Make Colombian investments abroad.”

When consulted by the alliance of El Espectador and CONNECTAS, former President Pastrana assured that “It was sought to convert pesos into dollars to internationalize a heritage” and replied that “The identity of the directors, dignitaries and beneficiaries was never concealed.”

The Washington-based ICIJ gained fame for so-called “Panama Papers”, a leak of 11.5 million documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which revealed in April 2016 that personalities from around the world hired the services of this firm, now defunct, to create offshore companies allegedly to evade taxes.

________________________________