New trouble for Glas as Odebrecht official expands his testimony in bribery case

José Conceição Santos has doubled-down on his charge that Vice President Jorge Glas received bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

Vice President Jorge Glas

In early August, Santos implicated Glas in the scandal in testimony and taped conversations with Ecuadorian officials but provided few solid details.

Stantos was Odebrecht manager for Ecuadorian contracts from 2007 until 2015 and has admitted paying more than $32 million in bribes to Ecuadorian officials and private businesses.

On Wednesday, Santos scoffed at Glas’ claim that he had little contact with his uncle, Ricardo Rivera, who is under arrest for receiving as much as $15 million in bribes.

“Jorge Glas and Ricardo Rivera are Siamese brothers,” Santos told reporters after he testified at the Ecuadorian Consulate in Brazil. “They feed and breathe through the same body. There is no difference between them,” he said. He added: “There is no doubt that Glas received money through his uncle’s accounts.”

Glas’ attorney Eduardo Franco Loor called Santos’s statements “infamous and outrageous” and said he could disprove them if he is allowed cross-examine. “My client is an honorable man being smeared by a dishonorable man,” he said.

Santos’s comments follow Tuesday testimony by Glas in which he admitted having business conversations with Rivera within the past five years. Earlier, Glas had testified that the only conversations between the two in “many, many years” regarded family matters.

To date, 18 government officials and business owners, including Glas and Rivera, have been indicted in the Odebrecht case.