Two former Puerto Rico officials and 4 businessmen have been arrested by the FBI in a major corruption probe invovling over 15 million in hurricane relief funds:
FOX NEWS – Six people, including Puerto Rico’s former education secretary, were arrested in a sweeping corruption probe in which it’s alleged that they steered federal funds to unqualified, politically connected contractors, federal officials said Wednesday.
The FBI arrested former education secretary Julia Keleher, former Puerto Rico Health Insurance Administration head Ángela Ávila-Marrero; businessmen Fernando Scherrer-Caillet and Alberto Velázquez-Piñol, and education contractors Glenda E. Ponce-Mendoza and Mayra Ponce-Mendoza, who are sisters, on fraud and related charges.
“It was alleged that the defendants engaged in a public corruption campaign and profited at the expense of the Puerto Rican citizens and students,” Neil Sanchez, the special agent in charge of the U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General’s Southern Region, said in a Wednesday news conference. “This type of corruption is particularly egregious because it not only victimizes taxpayers, it victimizes those citizens and students that are in need of educational assistance.”
The alleged fraud involved $15.5 million in federal money spent between 2017 and 2019. Keleher’s education department spent around $13 million during her two years as secretary. Another $2.5 million was spent by the insurance administration when Ávila-Marrero led the agency.
Officials said Velázques Piñol illegally used federal money to pay for lobbying, and improperly used contacts in the education and health insurance agencies to win contracts. Ponce-Mendoza worked as Keleher’s assistant; both her and her sister were friends with the former secretary.
Keleher is accused of steering contracts toward her friends without going through regular procedures.
Officials said there was no evidence that Keleher or Ávila-Marrero profited from the scheme. Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello was not involved in the investigation.
He was returning from vacation in Europe to meet with lawmakers about the investigation.
All the hell that Democrats and Puerto Rico officials gave the Trump administration after the hurricane and here we have two former officials trying to help their friends get rich after so many people died.
And I suspect these former officials had some kind of kickback arrangement with these friends of theirs that will come to light at some point. I doubt they did this for nothing.
Hopefully they throw these people under the jail.