Carlos Mattos defense will challenge prosecutors from the case

Since this Friday, March 25, the businessman, Carlos Mattos, has a new team of lawyers. The first step that will be taken in the defense of the former Hyundai legal representative will be to challenge the prosecutors who are carrying out the investigation against his client, for the millionaire bribes he paid to judges of the Republic to benefit from judicial decisions.

The lawyer, Omar Juan Carlos Suárez, a defender for Mattos, announced that he will challenge prosecutors Daniel Hernández and Álvaro Betancourt, on the grounds that no guarantees are offered to the process after it became known that a new investigation will be carried out against the seven individuals who participated in the negotiation of the frustrated preagreements.

With this move, Mattos would stop the trial against him, an attitude warned by Francisco Bernate, representative of the victims who in this case is the Judicial Branch, because according to his accounts the process would preclude in October and the damage in that case would be irreparable.

It is important to rescue that the prosecutor opened two investigations against Mattos. The first is the one that is being advanced in Court 30 for the payment of bribes to former judge Reinaldo Huertas, who was dismissed by the National Judicial Discipline Commission for 15 years, for cybercrime and bribery.

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In addition, Mattos is investigated before the 11th Court of Knowledge for the crime of bribery for the bribery of former civil judge Ligia del Carmen Hernández, who was sentenced to 25 months and 18 days by the Court, to rule in his favor and ensure ownership of the Hyundai brand distribution rights. This process is prescribed, according to Bernate, on April 18, 2023.

It should be noted that the businessman has been investigated since 2016 when Hyundai's head office in Korea broke relations after 25 years with the automotive company in Colombia, of which he was its representative on national territory. The businessman took on a legal battle in which, shortly after, irregularities were warned, which he himself confirmed in public hearings this year, after being extradited from Spain.

For the Prosecutor's Office, the businessman's action had no other purpose than to direct the lawsuit filed by Hyundai Colombia Automotriz S.A. against Hyundai Motor Company of the Republic of Korea to a specific firm and thus delay the case any further.

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Mattos's judicial process began when he was residing in Spain. The businessman stayed for several years in the European country because he has nationality of that country. However, this was not an impediment to the Office of the Prosecution moving forward with its investigative process. The former Hyundai representative in Colombia was requested on more than one occasion by the Colombian justice system. The authorities even asked for virtual hearings to be held, but he never appeared, so the prosecution decided to move forward with the file.

For his part, lawyer Suárez said that the interest of Carlos Mattos is that the process should be concluded as soon as possible and that it should not be delayed any longer, but he feels that there would be no guarantees for the investigation that will be carried out soon. He also pointed out that his client intends to acknowledge his responsibility in the Hyundai investigation and that the economic redress be implemented and that Mattos will therefore obtain a reduction of sentence.

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