Pedro Meilán, lawyer for former deputy Hector Brands of the PRD, stated that he hopes the ongoing investigation into his client will debunk the narrative that the former head of Pandeportes handled $600 million and embezzled $28 million.
According to Meilán, since 2011 and 2012, his client has had two companies that generate private income from legal sources. These sources can prove that the money under investigation belongs to him, and that he possesses even more. The lawyer complained that the Public Ministry is not including in the audit all years in which it was systematically proven that Brands earned large sums of money. He stated that this is not only proven through company transactions but also through income tax declarations filed with the General Directorate of Revenue (DGI).
Meilán asserts that his client had financial resources obtained legally and stated that this will be proven through the traceability of money provided by banks and declarations to the General Directorate of Revenue (DGI). The lawyer also highlighted that his client periodically appeared before the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Public Ministry, and even submitted notes in which he waived the right to privacy of his domicile, handing over his house and offices.
"I don't want to think that we are using practices used in previous governments that create a toxic environment in which, when it reaches the perception of the people who have to make decisions, the environment is created that the person is corrupt," Meilán stated.
The lawyer ensures that within the investigation in the Public Ministry, they are only analyzing Brands' income from 2019 to 2023, when he was part of the government led by Laurentino Cortizo, serving as a National Deputy and Director of Pandeportes.
Meilán is sure that "there is nothing to hide" because crimes such as "illegal enrichment and money laundering," for which Brands is being investigated, are handled through the traceability that banks provide, and that cannot be erased, so there is no danger that Hector can destroy any evidence that is being presented," the lawyer assured.
"I am sure that as it progresses, the falseness with which this has been treated in the media will be evidenced," said Meilán, who added that in the 96 volumes of the case file, it "establishes that the illegal enrichment is for $649,000 and how it was born, with $600 million," Meilán expressed on Julio Miller's program on Kw Continente.
The lawyer also assures that the case against Brands "was set up to harm the image" of his client and "create the perception in the population that he entered the government without resources and appropriated them".
