SAN SALVADOR, March 3 (NNN-TELESUR) — Ten years after being locked-up for embezzlement and money laundering, former El Salvador president Elías Antonio Saca is once-again being accused of financial irregularities, stemming from US$10M Taiwan granted to the Central American nation, that was misused, according to Prensalibre.
Prosecutor this week announced it would proceed with indictments against 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 four men stem from a deal involving Taiwan, whereby the Asian nation granted El Salvador US$10M “to execute four projects,” but according to the head of the unit of prosecutors against Corruption and Impunity, German Arriaza, the defendants were found to be “actively involved in the commission” of the crime of money laundering.
Arriaza explained that the accused used different mechanisms in order 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.” — NNN-TELESUR
