“How Colombia’s top corporate lawyer became a ‘threat to national security’" November 27, 2020

Colombia’s former chief prosecutor has gone from being one of the most powerful and influential corporate lawyers to facing trial for treason in just four years. Nestor Humberto Martinez was “Sarmiento’s guy,” the go-to guy for Colombia’s richest man, Luis Carlos Sarmiento, who has bankrolled every president’s campaign for 20 years…As if that wasn’t enough, former President Juan Manuel Santos‘ appointed the founder of former Vice-President German Vargas‘ Radical Change party “super minister” after the 2014 elections…Things started going wrong, however, after the Supreme Court elected Martinez as Prosecutor General in mid-2016…For years, Brazil’s “Operation Carwash” was unveiling a bribery scandal centered around state oil company Petrobas…In Colombia, Petrobas contractor Odebrecht had been working with Sarmiento’s Grupo Aval since 2009 and Martinez knew about suspicious payments in 2015…Ever since taking office as chief prosecutor in mid-2016, Martinez made sure to keep an eye, or an ear rather, on both his corporate clients’ interests and the criminal justice system…Additionally, prosecution officials were ordered to wiretap phones of people considered liabilities to Martinez’s corporate clients and report back to controversial prosecutor Daniel Hernandez…What Martinez did not expect was the US Department of Justice would reveal that Odebrecht had been bribing governments throughout Africa and Latin America, including Colombia, in December 2016…Martinez had been keeping this quiet as he was in full control of Colombia’s justice system. Suddenly, however, he was dealing with American criminal investigations into corruption that directly incriminated Grupo Aval and eventually himself…