Colombia’s Supreme Court calls journalist Daniel Coronel to testify in a corruption investigation against Senator Ivan Moreno, along with the legal director of Conalvias, a group contracted to work on the Bogota TransMilenio bus system.
The court is currently holding a preliminary investigation into the senator, brother of Mayor Samuel Moreno, for his alleged involvement in the corrupt granting of the city’s public works contracts.
The senator’s lawyer said that Coronel will be asked to testify regarding assertions made in an article he wrote for Semana magazine, in which he suggested that Ivan Moreno had assets in a British Virgin Islands tax haven which were not declared before Congress, reports El Nuevo Dia.
In October the Inspector General’s Office called Samuel Moreno for questioning about alleged corruption within his administration and ordered an investigation into Ivan Moreno for his part in the alleged misdeeds. The mayor came under fire after he was accused by businessman Miguel of receiving a commission for public works granted to the Group.
Ivan Moreno was apparently named in a recorded conversation, made public by El Tiempo, between Miguel Nule of the Nule Group and then-congressman German Olano. In the recording Nule mentions “the Morenos” in connection with commission payments, and Olano mentions “Samuel” and “Ivan.”
Coronel, an outspoken government critic, broke a story in 2009 about Uribe’s sons’ alleged use of insider knowledge of government plans to make money through buying land.