Roxana Baldetti was found guilty of fraud for involvement in a bogus multimillion-dollar scheme to clean up a contaminated lake

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

Guatemala’s former vice-president Roxana Baldetti has been jailed for more than 15 years on corruption charges linked to a multimillion-dollar fraud over a bogus scheme to clean up a contaminated lake, thanks to an investigation backed by the UN crime fighting force.

Public prosecutors backed by the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (Cicig) uncovered a criminal network run by Baldetti which conspired to award an $18m government contract to an Israeli company for a clean-up potion that turned out to be sea water.

Alarm as Guatemala bans head of UN anti-corruption body from country Read more

Tuesday’s verdict was hailed by anti-impunity campaigners battling to save the commission from expulsion by the current president who is fighting impeachment arising from multiple corruption allegations.

President Jimmy Morales argues that his decision to end the commission’s mandate next September was not personally motivated, and used a speech at the UN last month to claim Cicig was a threat to peace.

Morales, who was elected in 2015 on an anti-corruption platform, is facing charges of illegal campaign financing and fraud thanks to investigations backed by Cicig. His brother, son and political party also face corruption charges.

The standoff between the beleaguered president and popular anti-impunity commission has escalated in recent months. Morales has blocked the Cicig chief, Iván Velásquez, from re-entering Guatemala in defiance of court orders ruling the ban unconstitutional.

Velásquez welcomed Baldetti’s verdict on Twitter: “The fight against corruption and impunity IS possible!”

Baldetti, a former beauty queen, was forced to resign in 2015 after a separate Cicig-backed corruption investigation triggered a social uprising and brought down the government of President Otto Pérez Molina, who remains in Mariscal jail awaiting trial.

Cicig does not make arrests or directly prosecute cases – but its joint investigations with local prosecutors have helped uncover 60 criminal networks and bring charges against 680 people including four former presidents, military officers, judges, drug traffickers and entrepreneurs.

'Our Central American spring': protesters demand an end to decades of corruption Read more

Baldetti, 56, is the highest-ranking politician to be sentenced so far. She was sentenced to 15 years and six months by the high risk court in Guatemala City after the judge ruled that she was the “big chief” of the scam and found her guilty of fraud, illicit association and peddling influence.

Prosecutors said that she conspired to grant an $18m contract to the Israel-based company M Tarcic Engineering Ltd, which claimed it could clean up Lake Amatitlán, a popular weekend spot for wealthy Guatemalans which had been contaminated by huge quantities of sewage from the capital.

The company said it would clean the lake within months, but investigators found that the substance they used was merely saltwater and chlorine.

Nine others were jailed, including Baldetti’s brother Mario, who acted as the intermediary between the company and the government. The case had suffered repeated delays thanks to multiple injunctions and appeals filed by the defendants’ lawyers in a phenomenon condemned by international legal experts as “malicious litigation”.

Baldetti faces multiple corruption charges in three other major Cicig-backed cases, which suggest powerful networks involving political, economic, military and criminal elites had infiltrated institutions across the government for financial gain.

Baldetti also faces cocaine trafficking charges in the United States, but cannot be extradited until after serving her sentences at home.

Gabriel Wer, co-founder of the #JusticiaYa social and political movement which led the mass protests in 2015, said: “Ex-vice-president Baldetti has been sentenced for swindling millions from the state. This is a historic ruling, which would not have been possible without Cicig.”</s>A Guatemalan court sentenced former vice president Roxana Baldetti to 15 years and six months in prison Tuesday after finding her guilty of fraud in the awarding of a multi-million dollar government contract to decontaminate a lake near the capital.

Baldetti led a "criminal network" that sought to defraud the state, Judge Pablo Xitumul ruled in finding her guilty of conspiracy, influence peddling and fraud at the end of a four month trial.

Among the nine convicted with Baldetti was her brother Mario, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his involvement in steering the contract to a company owned by an Argentine-Israeli businessman, Hugo Roitman, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

The others involved were former government officials.

The project came to light in 2016 after environmentalists charged that the chemical formula sold was a mixture of salt and water.

Baldetti, who faces charges in three other corruption cases, resigned as vice president in May 2015 after being accused in a separate fraudulent scheme involving Guatemalan customs.</s>A Guatemalan court sentenced former vice president Roxana Baldetti to 15 years and six months in prison Tuesday after finding her guilty of fraud in the awarding of...Read more via TODAY.NG – https://ift.tt/2Pk2YxM Get more World News</s>Former Guatemala Vice President Roxana Baldetti has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for her involvement in a multimillion-dollar fraud case.

The court found Baldetti, 56, guilty of being involved in the embezzlement of millions of dollars from a state fund in what has become known as the "Magic Water" scandal.

Baldetti "participated in and directed" the criminal network to "defraud the state of Guatemala," said Judge Pablo Xitumul, delivering the sentence.

The fund was set up to clean a contaminated lake using state funds, but after the Israeli M Tarcic Engineering company was awarded the contract to clean the lake, millions of dollars were sent to shell companies and people involved with the scheme.

On top of that, the chemical used to decontaminate Lake Amatitlan was a useless mix of water, salt and chlorine that did not clean the lake.

According to one of the judges, Pablo Xitumul, Baldetti "issued instructions to place key people to execute the budget in favour of the criminal organization (and) facilitated the administrative and financial procedures for the company."

Nine others were also jailed in the "Magic Water" scandal, including Mario Baldetti, brother of the former vice president.

Baldetti left office in 2015 after massive protests against her and President Otto Perez.

They were both jailed over corruption scandals, plunging the country into a political crisis.

Baldetti, who was vice president for three years, faces separate accusations of leading a network to defraud the state related to customs, alongside Perez, who is also awaiting trial.

She also faces corruption charges and an extradition request from the United States on drug trafficking charges. Baldetti has denied both charges.

After Perez was forced to step down, Jimmy Morales - a TV comedian with no political experience - was elected president after running for office on an anti-corruption ticket.

 

Morales himself is being investigated for suspected illegal campaign financing. However, he is currently protected by presidential immunity, after parliament in September voted against lifting it.</s>GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Former Guatemalan Vice President Roxana Baldetti was sentenced to 15-1/2 years in prison on Tuesday for fraud, influence peddling and illicit association related to a government contract to clean up a polluted lake, in the first of several cases she faces.

A panel of judges had charged Baldetti, 56, who has been in prison since 2015, for her role in the contract for chemicals to clean up Lake Amatitlan, around 16 miles (25 kms) south of Guatemala City.

The $17.8 million contract was awarded to M. Tarcic Engineering, an Israeli firm, but after $2 million was paid, investigators realized the money had been transferred to bank accounts of shell companies, and individuals who were later accused of fraud, prosecutors said.

Investigators discovered that the chemicals were essentially water with salt, leading to the case being nicknamed, “Magic Water.”

Baldetti “issued instructions to place key people to execute the budget in favor of the criminal organization (and) facilitated the administrative and financial procedures for the company,” said Pablo Xitumul, one of the three judges who sentenced the former vice president.

In 2015, both Baldetti and President Otto Perez resigned and were jailed over corruption scandals that gutted his government, sparked mass protests and plunged the country into a political crisis days before a presidential election.

Baldetti, who was vice president for three years, faces separate accusations of leading a network to defraud the state related to customs, alongside Perez, who is also awaiting trial.

She also faces corruption charges and an extradition request from the United States on drug trafficking charges.

The U.N.-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala that helped bring her down is now facing its own crisis, after President Jimmy Morales decided not to renew its mandate.</s>Oct. 10 (UPI) -- A Guatemalan court has sentenced former Vice President Roxana Baldetti to 15 and-a-half years in prison for a multi-million dollar fraud scheme.

The court also sentenced nine others Tuesday in connection with the plot.

Prosecutors with the International Commission Against Impunity found Baldetti ran a criminal network that conspired to give an $18 million government contract to an Israeli company for a "magic water" product to clean up Lake Amatitlan in Guatemala.

The product was a mix of saltwater and chlorine that wasn't effective at decontaminating the water, prosecutors said.

Baldetti's sentence includes eight years for illicit association, five years for fraud and 30 months for influence peddling, the commission said.

Among the nine others sentenced is Baldetti's brother Mario, who coordinated and facilitated the contract given to M. Tarcic Engineering for the lake cleanup. He was given 11 years. Other included people involved with state institutions in the environmental field and company representatives. Their sentences ranged from three to 13 years.

Baldetti was forced to resign in 2015 after a separate corruption investigation brought down the government of President Otto Perez Meline, who's in jail awaiting trial. She also faces other charges and an extradition request from the United States on drug trafficking charges, which she has denied.

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales, elected in 2015, faces his own charges of illegal campaign financing and fraud and has decided to end the anti-corruption commission's mandate next September.

Commission chief Ivan Velasquez, who Morales blocked from re-entering Guatemala, applauded the sentences.

"The fight against corruption and impunity IS possible!" he tweeted.</s>Former Guatemalan Vice President Roxana Baldetti was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison Tuesday for involvement in a fraudulent state contract to decontaminate a major lake.

Prosecutors backed by a U.N. anti-corruption commission accused Baldetti and 12 other people of conspiring to grant an $18 million contract to clean up Lake Amatitlan to Israel-based M. Tarcic Engineering Ltd.

The company said it had a special formula that could clean the lake within months. But investigators determined the company used a substance that was merely water, salt and chlorine.

Judge Pablo Xitumul read the 15 year and 6 month sentence on the 55-year-old Baldetti for illegal association, fraud and influence trafficking. He called her "the big chief" of the plan.

The Israeli company's representative, Uri Roitman, was sentenced to 11 years for fraud and illegal association.

Baldetti has consistently denied wrongdoing. She resigned from the vice presidency in 2015 while facing corruption charges in a separate case. Former President Otto Perez Molina was forced to step down shortly afterward and remains in jail awaiting trial.

Baldetti also faces drug trafficking charges in the United States. A Guatemalan court last year approved a request to extradite her after several cases in Guatemala are resolved. The U.S. federal court indictment alleges Baldetti and others conspired to traffic cocaine to the U.S. between 2010 and 2015.

The sentence is an example of how the U.N.-backed anti-corruption commission has been able to help prosecutors reach the previously untouchable upper echelons of Guatemalan power.

President Jimmy Morales last month railed against the commission during a speech at the United Nations and has banned the commission's chief, Ivan Velasquez, from re-entering the country.

Morales had earlier announced that the commission would not have its mission extended beyond its current mandate that ends in September 2019.

Guatemalan prosecutors with the commission's support have three times sought to have Morales stripped of his immunity so that he can be investigated for alleged illicit campaign finance.</s>GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A Guatemalan court has sentenced former Vice President Roxana Baldetti to more than 15 years in prison for involvement in a fraudulent state contract. A U.N.-backed anti-corruption commission accused Baldetti and…

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A Guatemalan court has sentenced former Vice President Roxana Baldetti to more than 15 years in prison for involvement in a fraudulent state contract.

A U.N.-backed anti-corruption commission accused Baldetti and 12 other people of conspiring to grant an $18 million contract to clean up Lake Amatitlan to Israel-based M. Tarcic Engineering Ltd. Investigators determined the company used a substance that was merely water, salt and chlorine.

Judge Pablo Xitumul on Tuesday imposed a 15 year and 6 month sentence on the 55-year-old Baldetti for illegal association, fraud and influence trafficking. He called her “the big chief” of the plan.

Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.</s>GUATEMALA CITY — A Guatemalan court has sentenced former Vice-President Roxana Baldetti to more than 15 years in prison for involvement in a fraudulent state contract.

A U.N.-backed anti-corruption commission accused Baldetti and 12 other people of conspiring to grant an $18 million contract to clean up Lake Amatitlan to Israel-based M. Tarcic Engineering Ltd. Investigators determined the company used a substance that was merely water, salt and chlorine.

Judge Pablo Xitumul on Tuesday imposed a 15 year and 6 month sentence on the 55-year-old Baldetti for illegal association, fraud and influence trafficking. He called her “the big chief” of the plan.</s>Guatemala's former Vice-President Roxana Baldetti arrives to a hearing at the Supreme Court of Justice in Guatemala City, Guatemala, March 28, 2016, on charges of conspiracy, customs fraud and bribery charges. REUTERS/Josue Decavele
Former Guatemalan Vice President Roxana Baldetti is sentenced to 15 years and 6 months in prison for fraud in a system to clean the polluted Lake Amatitlán. Baldetti still has four pending lawsuits and extradition to the United States.