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News > El Salvador

Former Presidents Indicted for Money Laundering in El Salvador

  • El Salvador's former president Elias Antonio Saca waits for his hearing on corruption charges in Santa Salvador, El Salvador, May 16, 2018.

    El Salvador's former president Elias Antonio Saca waits for his hearing on corruption charges in Santa Salvador, El Salvador, May 16, 2018. | Photo: REUTERS

Published 3 March 2019
Opinion

The Office of the Prosecutor of El Salvador this week issued indictments against three former presidents, including currently-jailed Elías Antonio Saca for money laundering, stemming from funds donated by Taiwan, that were misued.

Former El Salvador President Elias Antonio Saca is once-again being accused of financial irregularities, stemming from a US$10 million Taiwan grant provided to the Central American nation, and which was allegedly misused, according to Prensalibre.

RELATED:
Former El Salvador President Antonio Saca Sentenced to 10 Years

The Prosecuter's Office of El Salvador this week annouced it would proceed with indictments against jailed former president, Elias Antonio Saca, along with deceased former President Francisco Flores, exiled former President Mauricio Funes, banker Mauricio Samayoa, and two of Saca's collaborators, Gerardo Balzaretti, and Juan Tennant Wright.

The charges leveled against the men stem from a deal involving Taiwan, whereby the Asian nation granted El Salvador US$10 million "to execute four projects," but according to German Arriaza, the head of the corruption and impunity unit of the prosecutor's office, the defendants were found to be "actively involved" in the crime of money laundering.

Arriaza explained that the accused used different mechanisms to enter, transfer and use the funds for other activities, report Prensalibre.

Saca is currently serving 10 years in a San Salvador jail after being found guilty of "misapropriation of more than US$300M in public funds," according to TeleSUR.

In the case of deceased former President Flores and banker Mauricio Samayoa, the Prosecutor's Office requested "definitive dismissal" because both are no longer living. Flores died as a result of a cardiac arrest on Jan. 30, 2016.

The Salvadoran Prosecutor's Office is prosecuting exiled left-wing former president Mauricio Funes in five different cases, with the most serious being the alleged deviation of US$351M.

Funes is in Nicaragua, isolated by the leftist president Daniel Ortega, since September 2016, when he left the country after claiming "political persecution."

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