Prosecutor’s Office Launches Investigation into ‘Dominga’ Owners’ Connections with Lawyers Implicated in Belarus Case

El Ciudadano

Original article: Fiscalía inició investigación por vínculos de dueños de «Dominga» con abogados imputados en «Trama Bielorrusa»

The Prosecutor’s Office has announced a criminal investigation into allegations of bribery, graft, and influence peddling involving the owners of the controversial mining-port project ‘Dominga’.

This investigation was initiated following a complaint filed by lawmakers Daniel Manouchehri and Daniella Cicardini (PS) and aims to clarify over $250 million in payments made by Andes Iron, the owners of ‘Dominga’, to the law firm of Eduardo Lagos and Mario Vargas, both of whom are implicated in the case dubbed ‘Belarus Scheme’.

The payments coincided with the review of the Dominga project by the First Environmental Tribunal and later by the Supreme Court, where the project was ultimately authorized.

This information emerged from an investigation by Reportea, which revealed transfers made under ‘retainers’ and ‘judicial lobbying’ to the law firm that included former lawmaker Gabriel Silber.

However, a review of the documents justifying these payments indicated that the reports were merely copy-pastes of publicly available information about the litigation concerning the project, failing to meet the specific objectives of the contract, and without the attorney handling the cases in court being aware of this «parallel advisory.»

According to the publication, between March and December 2023, the law firm received ten transfers from Andes Iron, despite Lagos and Vargas not being listed as legal representatives for the mining company in court, as highlighted in the Reportea article.