US judge convicts Colombia's former anti-corruption czar for corruption
Source: Colombia Reports
by Canin Carlos January 3, 2019
A US judge sentenced Colombias former top anti-corruption prosecutor to four years in prison after admitting he took a bribe from a former governor in a Miami mall.
Moreno, who was personally appointed by Prosecutor General Nestor Humberto Martinez in 2016, received a reduced sentence because he was already sentenced to five years in Colombia.
The conviction sent a shock wave through Colombias notoriously corrupt political establishment, according to newspaper El Tiempo, after Martinez former anti-corruption chief agreed to testify against 26 Colombian officials accused of making part of so-called toga cartel.
This could potentially result in US extradition requests for Colombias former chief justice, other former members of the Supreme Court and prominent politicians who allegedly bribed Supreme Court magistrates to frustrate criminal investigations.
Read more: https://colombiareports.com/us-judge-convicts-colombias-former-anti-corruption-czar-for-corruption/
sandensea
(21,627 posts)In nearby Argentina, something similar probably awaits Macri's "Anti-Corruption" office head, Laura Alonso.
Alonso, who received hundreds of thousands from vulture fundie and GOP megabundler Paul Singer as congresswoman a few years ago (thoroughly illegal by Argentine law), has basically used her office to protect Macri from a collection of corruption charges:
His writing off his own family's $300 million in Postal Service debt;
giving Colombia's Avianca access to domestic air routes in return to buying out his bankrupt MacAir charter airline;
undermining the national airline to benefit the highly unsafe 'FlyBondi' (in which some in his cabinet have a stake);
his family's hidden stake in utility firms (while decreeing 1000% rate hikes);
his $60 million+ in undeclared Caribbean accounts;
his Trump-like wind farm deals (buying for $15 million, selling for $75 mil.); etc.
None of it, according Ms. Alonso, "technically illegal."
Nor is she a lawyer - as the statute for Anti-Corruption Office heads mandates.
She is, however, "in love" with Señor Macri (her own words).
As good a qualification as any for the 'Trump of the Pampas' I suppose.
"Anti-Corruption" Office head Laura Alonso. She heard the glasses worked for Rick Perry.
christx30
(6,241 posts)irony than it is a demonstration of almost natural phenomena, like gravity.
People who are put in positions of power will always be corrupted. Sky is blue. Water is wet.
Anyone working in elected office is just currently unindicted. Maybe their garbage will be found out one day, maybe it wont. But it is there. No one is a paragon of virtue.
sandensea
(21,627 posts)If you make a crime profitable, so it's said, you make it inevitable.
Accountability is key, now more than ever. This is why the Cheetos of the world want Néstor Martínezes and Laura Alonsos as referees.
Judi Lynn
(160,527 posts)Updated 7:39 pm CST, Wednesday, January 2, 2019
MIAMI (AP) A former top official with Colombia's anti-corruption agency has received a four-year sentence from a U.S. judge for seeking bribes.
U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro in Miami sentenced Luis Gustavo Moreno Rivera on Wednesday on a money-laundering charge he pleaded guilty to last August. Co-defendant Leonardo Luis Pinilla received two years.
The 37-year-old Moreno is former director of the anti-corruption office for Colombia's chief prosecutor, while the 32-year-old co-defendant is an attorney.
The Drug Enforcement Administration said Moreno and Pinilla sought to obtain tens of thousands in bribes from a former governor of Colombia's Cordoba region who was under a separate corruption investigation. The former governor has been identified in Colombia as Alejandro Lyons.
Moreno and Pinilla traveled to Miami to accept $10,000 in 2017 and were seeking $130,000 more.
https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/US-gives-ex-Colombian-corruption-official-4-years-13504621.php
(Short article, no more at link.)