Former Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes Is Target of Lava Jato Order in Rio

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The former president of Paraguay Horacio Cartes was the target of an arrest warrant issued on Tuesday by judge Marcelo Bretas, the 7th Federal Criminal Court of Rio de Janeiro, under Operation ‘Patrón’ (Boss) an unfolding of Operation ‘Câmbio, Desligo’ (Over and Out), part of Lava Jato in Rio de Janeiro.

The investigation targets suspects linked to the money dealer (“doleiro”) Dario Messer, known as “the money dealer of money dealers”, who was arrested in São Paulo in July this year. The former Paraguayan president has not yet been located.

Cartes ruled Paraguay between August 2013 and August 2018. A millionaire entrepreneur suspected of hiding his assets through Messer, he is being charged with money laundering and criminal organization.

In a statement, the Federal Police said it has identified around US$20 million in concealed funds, of which more than US$17 million are in a bank in the Bahamas. The remainder is “scattered across Paraguay among money dealers, exchange houses, businessmen, politicians, and a lawyer,” according to the statement.

In this Tuesday’s operation, the Federal Police executed a total of 37 pre-trial detention, temporary detention and search and seizure warrants in Rio de Janeiro; Armação dos Búzios (RJ); greater São Paulo; and Ponta Porã (MS) on the border with Paraguay.

The addition of Cartes and other residents of Paraguay and the United States in Bretas’ order was authorized by Interpol’s Red Notice. Among the targets is Messer’s girlfriend, Myra de Oliveira Athayde, who was arrested on Tuesday. She was in her apartment in Ipanema, in the South Zone of Rio.

Nicknamed by fellow “doleiro” Alberto Youssef as “the money dealer’s money dealer”, Dario Messer has been monitored by the courts since the 1990s.

He had permanently moved to Paraguay in 2014, the year in which Lava Jato was launched. He had fixed residence and citizenship in the neighboring country.

Until he became the target of an arrest warrant in May 2018 in a mega “Over and Out” operation, on charges of coordinating a scheme involving US$1.6 billion in 52 countries. At the time he managed to escape but was finally captured in July this year.

The description of the operation refers to the way Messer revered the former president of Paraguay. Cartes, one of the richest businessmen in the country, is an old acquaintance of Dario’s father, Mordko Messer, who supposedly taught his son the money dealers’ trade.

During the World Jewish Congress event in Buenos Aires in March 2016, Cartes said he was welcomed by Mordko, whom he referred to as his “second father”, at a difficult time in his life.

“God placed on my path a family and a great person who welcomed me into their hearts and feelings and made me feel part of the family. They helped me and taught me essential things. They won my eternal affection, my gratitude, and admiration,” said the former president at the time. In an interview with the local newspaper Última Hora, the Paraguayan also called Dario a “soul brother”.

The money dealer even took part in the president’s official trip to Israel in 2013. He also owns a property in the exclusive Paraná Country Club in the city of Hernandarias, where apartments are worth more than US$200,000 and a house is worth US$1 million.

According to the newspaper ABC Color, Cartes issued decrees in 2017 “to benefit his ‘brother’ Dario, among them the veto of a bill that would have declared the land of Paraná Club as a nature reserve.

Source: El Pais