Фото: Литовская таможня
Prosecutors claim that at least 57 million pesos from the Belarusian consortium Belaz-Movitec (CBM) were paid to former judge Angela Vivanco and her partner in exchange for a favorable ruling in a case involving Chile’s state-owned copper giant Codelco, according to local outlet CIPER.
Reporters from the publication reviewed a 148-page warrant that the prosecution submitted to the court. Prosecutors are seeking the arrest of Gonzalo Migeles, husband of former judge Vivanco, and lawyers Mario Vargas and Eduardo Lagos, who represented CBM in the legal dispute with Codelco.
According to the allegations, the first payment of 14,000 U.S. dollars was made on December 18, 2023, after Vivanco voted in favor of ordering Codelco to pay CBM more than 4 billion pesos in compensation for halting and removing equipment seized by the company. The remaining 45 million Chilean pesos were allegedly paid on June 17, 2024, after Vivanco ruled that Codelco must pay an additional 1.026 billion pesos for recalculations and VAT related to the demobilization of machinery.
The warrant also states that during the Supreme Court proceedings, Vivanco, Migeles, Vargas, and Lagos met several times at the judge’s home. Phone geolocation data indicated that at the time one of CBM’s motions was filed, Lagos, Vargas, Migeles, and Vivanco were all at her residence.
In response to CIPER, former judge Vivanco said she had not received any payment for decisions in favor of CBM, adding that she and her partner maintained “separate finances.”
According to prosecutors, after receiving the money, Vivanco and her husband Migeles traveled to Buenos Aires (December 22–25, 2023) and later vacationed in Brazil (January 12–27, 2024), where they allegedly made large dollar-denominated purchases on credit cards.
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The relationship between CBM and Codelco began in spring 2021, when CBM won a tender to build roads and remove soil as part of the Rajo Inca copper mining project. Codelco planned to invest 1.383 billion U.S. dollars to extend the operational life of one of its seven mining divisions in Chile’s Salvador district.
In June 2021, BelAZ announced it had signed a contract to supply 18 vehicles to Chile, but by September of that year, Lithuanian customs in the Port of Klaipeda detained 18 shipping containers containing four vehicle kits for mining trucks after BelAZ was included in the European Union’s fourth package of sanctions imposed following the Ryanair plane incident in Minsk.
On February 1, 2023, Codelco made a decisive move and terminated its contract with CBM, later commissioning Tepsac, Bailac, Komatsu, and Detroit to complete the work.
The case was brought before the courts and also had diplomatic implications. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry publicly defended the Belarusian company.