Black Cube in Paraguay
Reported 2022 Black Cube engagement for former Paraguayan president Horacio Cartes
| Black Cube in Paraguay
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Reported private intelligence engagement against corruption investigations |
| Date | 2022 (plan reportedly agreed September 2022) |
| Location | Asunción, Paraguay; run from Black Cube's Madrid office (as reported) |
| Participants | Black Cube |
| Organisers | Client, according to Intelligence Online: former president Horacio Cartes |
| Inquiry status | No official inquiry into the reported engagement. The account rests on a single unnamed source cited by Intelligence Online (15 July 2026) |
| Outcome | According to Intelligence Online, the engagement "failed to protect Cartes". The US Treasury sanctioned him in January 2023. Black Cube denied conducting political investigations in Paraguay |
Black Cube in Paraguay refers to a reported 2022 engagement in which the former Paraguayan president Horacio Cartes sought the help of the Israeli private intelligence firm Black Cube against corruption investigations. The account comes from a single source, described as "a person close to the case", cited by Intelligence Online in July 2026. Black Cube denied conducting political investigations in Paraguay.
The allegation appeared in the same Intelligence Online article that reported Black Cube's work for the Huts family of Katoen Natie, covered on Black Cube in Uruguay.[1] It came in the same year that the US government took its first action against Horacio Cartes for corruption.[2]
The reported engagement
Intelligence Online reported that Black Cube's Madrid office was "kept busy on at least one other politically charged assignment in Latin America". In 2022, it said, Horacio Cartes, former president and "one of the country's wealthiest men", sought the firm's help "in trying to rid himself of a series of corruption investigations" led by the Public Prosecutor's Office into money laundering, cigarette smuggling and tax avoidance.[1]
According to "information we received from a person close to the case", the operation consisted of "helping allies of Cartes push back against accusations of high-level corruption", in an attempt to blunt the investigations. Intelligence Online reported that a plan was agreed at the Sheraton hotel in Asunción in September 2022, and that "Black Cube invoiced a Paraguayan law firm for the work, which was described as litigation support". The law firm is not named.[1]
Sourcing
The engagement rests on one unnamed source and on unspecified "information obtained by Intelligence Online". The article does not name the allies Cartes is said to have helped, the people targeted, or the methods used. No court, prosecutor or regulator has reported on a Black Cube role in Paraguay.[1]
US government actions
The US measures against Cartes were not responses to the reported Black Cube work. They are summarised here because Intelligence Online set them alongside it, and because its wording differs from the official releases.
- State Department designation, 22 July 2022. The US State Department designated Cartes "for his involvement in significant corruption", saying he had "obstructed a major international investigation into transnational crime in order to protect himself and his criminal associate from potential prosecution and political damage". The designation, under Section 7031(c) of the State Department appropriations act, also covered his three adult children.[2] Intelligence Online wrote that the department had labelled him "significantly corrupt"; that phrase, in quotation marks in the article, does not appear in the release.[1]
- Treasury sanctions, 26 January 2023. The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Cartes under the Global Magnitsky programme (Executive Order 13818), together with the then vice-president Hugo Velázquez. It said Cartes "maintained his grip on policymaking through monthly cash bribes paid out to loyal legislators", with payments of $5,000 to $50,000 per member.[3]
Intelligence Online concluded that the engagement "ultimately failed to protect Cartes from law enforcement locally and internationally".[1] Further sanctions detail, including the 2024 designation of the tobacco company Tabesa, is on the Horacio Cartes page.
Black Cube's response
Asked about its activity in Uruguay and Paraguay, Black Cube replied through an English law firm, which cited client confidentiality and "denied Black Cube has conducted political investigations in either jurisdiction".[1] No response from Cartes is reported in the article.
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Matt Bernardini and Michael Sweeney, Black Cube, business and politics in Latin America, Intelligence Online, 15 July 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 US Department of State, Designation of Former Paraguayan President Horacio Manuel Cartes Jara for Involvement in Significant Corruption, press statement by Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State, 22 July 2022.
- ↑ US Department of the Treasury, Treasury Sanctions Paraguay's Former President and Current Vice President for Corruption, press release, 26 January 2023.