MONTEVIDEO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th February, 2022) Paraguay's General Prosecution office said on Monday that it had started investigation against former President Horacio Cartes, suspected of corruption and money-laundering.
"The Prosecutor General has ordered to initiate a criminal case on smuggling and money-laundering in view of Interior Minister Arnaldo Giuzzio's statement at the congress meeting," the office said.
Last year, Giuzzio revealed Cartes' criminal scheme, sparking a corruption scandal in the country. On January 26, 2022 the interior minister filed a complaint on Cartes to Paraguay's Secretariat for the Prevention of Asset- or Money-Laundering.
Cartes was listed in the so-called Pandora papers - leaked documents published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists within the investigation into offshore schemes of a number of world's high-ranking leaders.
The released files also contain data on the beneficial owners of more than 15,000 offshore entities, including Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, King of Jordan Abdullah II, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, President of Montenegro Milo Dukanovic, Gabon's President Ali Bongo, former Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab, daughter of Kazakhstan's former president Dariga Nazarbayeva, and daughter of Angola's former president Isabel dos Santos.
