(San Salvador) Former Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes, already convicted of corruption, but a refugee in Nicaragua, was accused on Wednesday of having received a plane from a Guatemalan company in exchange for the award of two public works contracts .
Posted at 5:38 p.m.
“The General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic has presented an indictment against ex-president Mauricio Funes for the offense of money and capital laundering,” said a magistrate from the public prosecutor’s office, who asked to remain anonymous.
The former head of state is accused, along with a senior official currently imprisoned for another corruption case, of having “illegally negotiated” the award to the Guatemalan company Servicios Calificados de la Construcción SA of two works contracts roads while the company “did not have the capacity” to honor these contracts, according to the Salvadoran General Prosecutor’s Office.
In exchange, the Guatemalan company donated “a plane (a Beechcraft King Air)”, specified the judicial source, without revealing the amount of the contracts thus negotiated.
The plane was rented by the president to third parties, and also served him for private trips with his family, according to the magistrate.
Mauricio Funes found refuge in Nicaragua after being accused in particular of having embezzled 351 million dollars when he was in power, from 2009 to 2014. He obtained Nicaraguan nationality, which protects him from any extradition .
Two other former Salvadoran presidents are being prosecuted in corruption cases.
Former President Elias Antonio Saca (2004-2009) has been imprisoned since 2016 and was sentenced in 2018 to ten years in prison for money laundering and other corruption for a total amount of 301 million dollars.
Former President Salvador Sanchez Ceren (2014-2019) is being prosecuted for embezzlement of $350 million. Like Mr. Funes, he fled to Nicaragua, which also granted him nationality.