Puerto Rico Governor now facing 24 federal charges
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| Published on Thursday, August 21, 2008 |
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By MM Sierra
Caribbean Net News Puerto Rico Correspondent
Email: miranda@caribbeannetnews.com
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico: A federal grand jury charged Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá with five additional counts and two other people close to his 2004 gubernatorial campaign, with “honest services wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering” late Tuesday.
The five-count indictment returned Tuesday at the U.S. District Court in Puerto Rico, charges Acevedo Vilá, 46; Luisa Inclán Bird, 47 and Miguel Nazario Franco, 61, with honest services wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
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| Anibal Acevedo Vila, governor of Puerto Rico. Photo: Bloomberg News |
Acevedo Vilá was Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner in Washington DC between 2001 and 2005, and was elected governor in 2004. He was sworn in on January 2, 2005.
While Inclán Bird, a lawyer, was a legal advisor for the San Juan Resident Commissioner Office when Acevedo Vilá served as the island’s resident commissioner and was a volunteer in the finance department for Acevedo Vilá’s 2004 gubernatorial campaign.
Nazario Franco was Acevedo Vilá’s 2004 gubernatorial campaign finance director.
All three defendants had previously been indicted with similar charges on March 24. Acevedo Vilá is now facing 24 counts including conspiracy to violate federal campaign laws and defraud the Internal Revenue Service as well as for giving false statements to the FBI during their ongoing probe.
If convicted of all 24 counts, Acevedo Vilá could face up to 60 years in federal prison.
“The object of the scheme and artifice to defraud and deprive was to secretly obtain approximately $250,000 paid by Collaborator 18 for the benefit of the defendant Acevedo Vilá and Comité Aníbal, and to use the authority and influence of the office of the Governor to benefit Collaborator 18 and his companies. It was further object of the scheme to conceal defendant Acevedo Vilá’s financial relationship with Collaborator 18 and his corporations from the people of Puerto Rico,” reads the indictment.
Furthermore, the indictment alleges that during his term as governor, Acevedo Vila participated in official actions intended to aid the business interests of Collaborator 18, while failing to disclose the nature and extent of his financial relationship with Collaborator 18.
In the indictment, count five sets forth the second related course of conduct and alleges that the defendants conspired to conduct financial transactions with the illegal funds provided by Collaborator 18. These transactions were designed to conceal and disguise the nature and the source of the money, which constituted the proceeds of the honest services fraud alleged in the earlier counts.
The indictment further alleges that the media company used by Acevedo Vilá's campaign created approximately $250,000 in fake invoices, which were provided to Collaborator 18's company under the guise that the media company had provided bona fide services when, in fact, it had done no work for Collaborator 18 or his company. These invoices were designed to conceal the fact that the $250,000, which was subsequently paid by Collaborator 18's company and used to offset debts incurred by the campaign, was the proceeds of the honest services fraud perpetrated by the defendants.
As the charges were presented in a separate indictment, it’s still unknown if the case will be seen separately from the previous charges issued in March. The March indictment is slated for trial on February 2009 and will be seen by New Hampshire U.S. District Judge Paul Barbadoro.
“After being sworn in as governor in 2005, defendant Acevedo Vilá provided direct and personal assistance to Collaborator 18’s business interests by meeting directly with Collaborator 18 to discuss Collaborator 18’s business concerns and proposals as they related to the Puerto Rico government, and then directing defendant Inclán Bird as well as other aides and subordinates to provide official assistance to Collaborator 18 in his dealings with the government of Puerto Rico,” reads the indictment.
“Defendant Acevedo Vilá would at times, while directing such assistance, inform some aides that Collaborator 18 had helped his campaign.”
The governor’s attorney Thomas Green immediately reacted to the new indictment saying “this new indictment comes a month and a half after we moved to dismiss the original indictment based on it numerous legal defects…that is no coincidence.”
“A short while ago, I was informed by the Department of Justice that the grand jury has returned yet another indictment against Governor Acevedo Vilá and two other defendants charged in the original indictment… It also comes just eleven weeks before the citizens of Puerto Rico are scheduled to go to the polls to vote for their Governor. That is no coincidence either. I am dismayed that the United States Department of Justice, which has previously vowed to purge itself of political motivations and influences, is still determined to engage in these kinds of heavy-handed, unfair tactics in Puerto Rico. Governor Acevedo Vilá firmly denies these charges. We shall attack this indictment as aggressively as we attacked the first indictment, and we shall do everything in our power to see to it that the Bush Justice Department does not impact the outcome of the pending election,” Green said in a written statement.
On Wednesday, Acevedo Vilá offered a televised message, reiterating his innocence and saying that he will not step down from his post nor will he withdraw his candidacy for re-election.
“I have never committed an illegal act and I have never asked anyone to do so… There is not one allegation of illegally awarding contracts, bribery or embezzlement of public funds,” he said during a televised message.
“You and I know that this was, is and will be a political investigation motivated by people who don’t tolerate that one thinks differently from them,” he added.
According to the indictment the investigation into related corruption and other crimes is ongoing in the District of Puerto Rico. An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty through the due process of law. | | | | Reads : 93 |
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