A handful of recently fired Ecopetrol executives and a group of owners of influential companies in the hydrocarbon sector are dedicated to establishing who are the authors of a package of complaints and anonymous letters that ended up strengthening the internal audit being carried out at the state company.
Indeed, emails, chats and statements from officials who still remain at Ecopetrol and its subsidiaries (including the Houston office, located in a luxurious building on Post Oak Street) began to be delivered or recovered with a chain of custody to evaluate whether they serve as evidence of acts of corruption ranging from alleged payments for vice presidential appointments to the delivery of millionaire bribes for the awarding of contracts for civil works, maintenance of hydrocarbon transportation systems, security and even computer services.
The alleged interference of the Catalan Manel Grau, a friend of former president Gustavo Petro and his former first lady, Verónica Alcocer, as well as a contractor known as the ‘Bachiller’, is one of the macro cases in the investigation matrix. This was confirmed in the middle of the week by former minister Luis Felipe Henao, hours before he was relieved of the presidency of the state board by the lawyer and strategist Carlos Suárez, a trusted man of President Abelardo De La Espriella, who arrived at the state company after the shareholders’ meeting on Tuesday.
It is already clear that the findings of the forensic audit – which can last between 4 and 8 months – will be sent to the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office, but they will also be transferred to administrative and judicial authorities in the United States, because Ecopetrol is under the orbit of that jurisdiction because it is listed on the sensitive New York Stock Exchange.. In fact, federal agencies are already asking about a couple of issues.
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Zenith and the $10 trillion
The Catalan Manuel Grau with Verónica Alcocer. Photo:express
One of the executives of the state company, who went from vice president to informant, assured the EL TIEMPO Investigative Unit that he himself provided data from one of the cases included in the investigation matrix, which involves the supply vice presidency of Ecopetrol, in Catalan, the ‘Dancer’ (as the former first lady is known in Ecopetrol). and even Julián Caicedo, the partner of the former president of the state Ricardo Roa. The latter is another of the macro cases of the audit.
Although Roa has been emphatic that Caicedo never had anything to do with decisions linked to Ecopetrol, information is verified in which he is mentioned about construction framework contracts and assignment of service orders that register an atypical concentration of contractors and undue pressure.
“It is already documented that a group of companies received contracts for more than 10 billion pesos, including those from Ecopetrol and its subsidiary Cenit,” the same executive told EL TIEMPO. And sources from the Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that they have in their possession audios attributed to the Catalan Grau, where he claims that, with the approval of Casa de Nariño, he had management in Ecopetrol, Cenit and ISA.
in the same package He is mentioning a contractor whom they know as the ‘Bachelor’.
In this regard, the Investigative Unit of EL TIEMPO investigated and established that, among the contracts whose legality is checked, there are service orders in the name of four companies. One of these, located in Huila, and another in Barrancabermeja, named Conyser SAS, which registers contracts with Ecopetrol, even from other administrations, for 79,000 million pesos for water treatment, civil works, geotechnics and infrastructure.
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The ‘Bachi’
President (e) of Ecopetrol, Juan Carlos Hurtado. Photo:Naturgás Congress 2026
Conyser’s legal representative is Jorge Humberto Argüello Beltrán who in Santander media identifies with the nickname ‘The Bachelor’.
The Investigative Unit of EL TIEMPO exclusively revealed an audio of a meeting attributed to the Catalan Grau and in which They place Juan Carlos Hurtado (who later became president of Ecopetrol), in which they mention ‘Bachi’.
In a first aside, a man they call ‘Víctor’ is heard saying to whom they identify as Hurtado: “I am the person who received the resume from this Mr. Jorge, this ‘Bachi’.”
Since last Wednesday, EL TIEMPO has sent messages to businessman Argüello to find out his version. His lawyer was even called in an easement lawsuit that Ecopetrol has active against him, but at the time of going to press he had not responded.
His son, Cristian Argüello, was also called to the Chamber by the Liberal party of the former governor of Santander Richard Aguilar. in the last legislative elections in which both were burned. But he didn’t respond either.
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Information leak
One of the Cenit plants. Photo:Zenith
Three other macro cases for which they have been requesting information are related to civil works for geotechnics that were signed in Cenit; In addition, with surveillance and electronic security contracts, signed at Ecopetrol. This package is joined by an issue that is already in the hands of justice: the contracting of air transport for the Ecopetrol Group.
In these three cases there is talk of a leak of information in favor of companies and even meetings on the 12th floor of the Ecopetrol building, where the presidency, three key vice-presidencies, the regulation direction and a pool of advisors and secretaries function.
On the issue of helicopters, a week ago the 65th municipal criminal judge of Bogotá He refused to reopen a process against Ricardo Roa, for alleged contract routing.
And regarding the civil works in Cenit, which include pipes, electrical connections and station instrumentation, it is noted that one of the alleged suspects was removed, after paternity leave, after information arrived about bribe payments for handing over data.
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The powerful foreigner
Mónica de Greiff, then president of the board of directors of Ecopetrol. Photo:CCB
In the information that has reached control organizations and that a former executive of the Ecopetrol group has been providing to EL TIEMPO, There is also talk of millionaire handouts given to senior officials of the oil company “for the marketing of crude oil and gas.”
In this case, the Commercial and Marketing vice-presidency and a foreigner of Turkish nationality are mentioned, who would have disbursed close to 1,000 million pesos for a contract, whose traceability is supported by a third country.
The reason: one of the partners of the so-called Turk is an American national.
In addition, the alleged payment of another gift from a company is traced settled in a neighboring country that appears signing asphalt marketing contracts without meeting requirements.
And there is a second case that foreign authorities are asking about: the awarding of a contract for a surveillance technological solution for the Ecopetrol group.
The Investigative Unit of EL TIEMPO revealed in October 2025 that a complaint about this process reached Mónica de Greiff, then president of the board of directors of Ecopetrol.
There was talk of meetings in Paris, Spain and Sopó with businessmen interested in the million-dollar contract, the existence of cheaper offers and the fact that required certifications from the Superintendency of Surveillance had been omitted.
At the time, Roa denied any irregular participation. And the same was done by official spokespersons for the winning companies, who assured that they jealously complied with standards of excellence. One of their attorneys told EL TIEMPO that, although the case is still under investigation, they filed a complaint for slander and false accusation.
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The other macroblocks
Bayron Triana, former vice president of Energies for the Transition. Photo:Ecopetrol
Another package of investigations that would bring together at least 10 cases is related to shady appointments for which they would have been paid or directed by external people, including Catalan.
Cases are being reviewed in the Eastern Llanos Pipeline and in the selection of energy management and subsidiaries. Also, in the Windpeshi wind energy park, in La Guajira.
Included within that same block of information was a complaint made by EL TIEMPO last March about the alleged connection of Bayron Triana, Until a few weeks ago, he was Vice President of Energies for the Transition of Ecopetrol, with a swarm of firms from the energy and gas sector.
Triana himself assured this newspaper that the accusations are part of a smear campaign against him because he refused to give in to the pressure that came from Casa de Nariño for a million-dollar gas purchase contract to be signed by the Houston office.
Contractual movements in that office They are another of the macro cases that are being investigated.
And the other 12 remaining are related to solar farm contracts, including those signed through Fiduprevisora; contracts at Cenit with cost overruns and alleged gifts included; and works in La Guajira.
The so-called Bionube or Sovereign Cloud project, valued at 80 million dollars, has the participation of the Ministry of ICT, Ecopetrol and Internexa, a subsidiary of ISA. Internexa was already affected by another million-dollar process in the ICT portfolio, for 630,000 million pesos, which ISA crossed.
“If only half of those 32 cases turn out to have criminal grounds, the looting of Ecopetrol will displace that of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) as the biggest corruption scandal of the Petro government. And in that case there are already more than 10 arrests,” A vice president of Ecopetrol told EL TIEMPO that he is ready to testify before the Prosecutor’s Office.
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