A witness in the Belarusian scandal has confirmed that Lagos was aware before the ruling that benefited Belaz Movitec: "He arrived in a state of euphoria."

On April 27th, lawyer Isaac Ramírez appeared before Sergeant Héctor Meza of the OS7 investigative unit at the Eastern Prosecutor's Office to testify. Ramírez was relevant to the investigation because he worked at the law firm of Eduardo Lagos and Mario Vargas, the individuals involved in the Belarusian case. He was the one who drafted the legal challenge on behalf of the Belaz Movitec (CBM) consortium against Codelco, which is the origin of the corruption case being investigated by the Public Ministry. "I started working at the firm in July 2019, at that time it was only Eduardo Lagos's firm. A few months later, approximately in August or September, Mario Vargas joined, and in 2022, Gabriel Silber joined," Ramírez recounted. He then recalled a meeting with representatives of Belaz Movitec where the strategy for the legal challenge was developed: "Regarding meetings with the CBM company, I was only present at one in February or March 2023. I remember that Josep Sekul was present. On that occasion, Sekul presented a timeline of events, indicating that they had a good relationship with Codelco, but that, due to a fatal accident, the relationship changed. He stated that Codelco had prematurely terminated the contract, which meant a significant economic loss for CBM. In that context, Eduardo Lagos, who was the only partner of the firm present at that meeting, stated that they would file a legal challenge regarding this matter. There was no discussion about withholding payment statements at that time; it was more about the withholding of machinery and equipment." The witness added that, as far as he understood, CBM was a long-standing client and that they came to the firm at the end of February. "From my perspective, that meeting was typical of when a client explains their case and commits to providing the necessary documents to proceed with the legal process," he stated. Ramírez clarified that it was Lagos who proposed filing the legal challenge: "This strategy, as far as I know, was Eduardo Lagos's idea." The witness also described Lagos's work style. "I would like to clarify that my direct employer was Eduardo Lagos. I received all instructions directly from him. He was very protective of his clients, meaning that all interactions with them had to go through him. None of us could have direct contact with them, and he would transmit the legal strategy to us when it was ready, and we would execute it." His testimony also confirms that the legal challenge, which later led to the multimillion-dollar payments from Codelco to the Belarusians, was written by him. "I wrote it, following instructions from Eduardo Lagos. I conducted the legal research. For this purpose, I interviewed Mr. Sekul. I remember seeing an email from Jaime Duch, who sent the documents. I did not have contact with other people from CBM," he said. Ramírez stated that he worked at the office in person until 6:00 PM from Monday to Wednesday, and on Thursdays he left at 2:00 PM, and on Fridays he worked remotely. During that time, he said he never saw former Minister Ángela Vivanco or her partner, Gonzalo Migueles. In his statement, the witness confirmed that he knew before the ruling was issued that CBM had won the multimillion-dollar case against Codelco. "I learned about it from Eduardo Lagos, who, as I recall, told me on the same day of the ruling, which was July 4th. I remember that date specifically because of the date of the sentence. He told me in person," he assured the OS7. Ramírez said he did not see the ruling, but only heard about it from Lagos: "I did not see the ruling that day. I remember that he arrived at the office, euphoric, around lunchtime, saying that things had gone well for them in the Supreme Court. However, the ruling was not available in the system at that time." He then clarified that he tried to check the ruling himself that same day, but he was unable to access it: "Yes, I accessed the system, because I know that sometimes, only sometimes, some procedural rulings may appear on the same day, especially if they are from the Supreme Court, but this one was not appearing in the system. I have the habit of constantly checking the cases, as it is part of my routine, especially with important cases. This routine consists of checking the status of the cases in the morning and approximately at nine o'clock at night, because I know that those are the times when the systems are updated." "Mr. Lagos told me that 'things had gone well' for us in the Supreme Court. I checked the system on the day he told me, and it wasn't there, and only the next day was I able to verify that the sentence was publicly available," Ramírez concluded.