Oscar Andrade is implicated in the Sunca mega scam, the construction workers' union, always led by the Communist Party (PCU).
The senator from Frente Amplio and former main leader of Sunca for many years has been mentioned in connection with an investigation into the embezzlement of funds from the Construction Workers' Social Housing Fund (FOSVOC).
This involves 1,200,000 dollars that were looted from the fund by Communist Party union members.
The figure is not speculation; it was confirmed at a press conference by the case's prosecutor, Gilberto Rodríguez.
For now, the PCU legislator from list 1001 is not formally charged. However, prosecutor Rodríguez indicated that it is almost certain he will summon him to give a statement at the prosecutor's office.
Who implicated Andrade?
Those who named the current Frente Amplio senator at the prosecutor's office were his own PCU colleagues.
The three former union members Santiago Bernaola, Bruno Bertolio, and Víctor Rivero, criminally convicted in June for crimes such as embezzlement, fraud, and criminal association, stated in their testimonies before the Prosecutor's Office that Andrade and deputy Daniel Diverio had full knowledge of the fraudulent schemes that involved more than 1,200,000 dollars.
In other words, those accusing him are his own colleagues from the Party and the union who have known him for many years.
Prosecutor Rodríguez is considering summoning Andrade and Diverio for administrative statements, but clarified that, only for now, they are not formally charged or under investigation at this stage.
Diverio is currently a deputy for PCU and was also a union bureaucrat at Sunca for many years.
Hiring of attorney Gonzalo Fernández
It has also emerged that both Andrade and Diverio will be represented by attorney Gonzalo Fernández, who was Tabaré Vázquez's right-hand man, a member of the Socialist Party, and is one of the most expensive attorneys in Uruguay.
Prosecutor Rodríguez was for several years an assistant to Gonzalo Fernández in the Criminal Law Department at the Faculty of Law of the University of the Republic.
At least in the university setting, Rodríguez was a subordinate of Gonzalo Fernández.
Andrade, property tax evader
As already reported by La Derecha Diario, the current Frente Amplio senator evaded paying property tax to the Canelones municipality for at least 10 years.
