Did Puerto Rican Politicians Steal Money For Hurricane Relief

WASHINGTON – The Democratic lawmaker who chairs the House commission that oversees Puerto Rico chosen on the isle's governor to step downwards afterwards half-dozen people, including Puerto Rico's onetime secretarial assistant of education, were arrested Wednesday on federal fraud charges.

Erstwhile Education Secretarial assistant Julia Keleher and Ángela Ávila-Marrero, former head of Puerto Rico's Health Insurance Assistants, were arrested on 32 counts of fraud, theft and money laundering, along with two businessmen and two sisters who worked as educational activity contractors.

In the indictment, prosecutors criminate that Keleher steered government contracts "through a corrupt bidding process" to an unqualified business firm run by Glenda Ponce-Mendoza and Mayra Ponce-Mendoza, with whom she had a "shut relationship."

"Information technology was alleged that the defendants engaged in a public corruption campaign and profited at the expense of the Puerto Rican citizens and students," said Neil Sanchez, special agent in charge of the U.S. Department of Education's Role of Inspector Full general's Southern Region, at a news conference on Wednesday.

Officials said there was no evidence Keleher or Ávila-Marrero had personally benefited from the scheme.

On Wed, a tweet from the National Resource Committee – which has jurisdiction over U.South. territories, including Puerto Rico – said Chairman Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., "is calling for Gov. Rossello of Puerto Rico to step downward given multiple arrests in a corruption probe."

"We've crossed that crucible at present," Grijalva told The Washington Mail service. "The restoration of accountability is so central going frontward."

Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said on Twitter that he is returning to Puerto Rico from a family holiday "immediately" in light of the significance of the arrests.

"The allegations confronting the people arrested today are a disgrace," Rosselló tweeted. "Our public policy is clear: we will fight corruption in all its forms. No i is to a higher place the law."

U.S. Attorney for Puerto Rico Rosa Emilia Rodríguez said Rosselló was not a function of the investigation.

But Wednesday's arrests are the latest in a series of corruption cases that have been brought in Puerto Rico in recent months. On June 28, the FBI appear it was "investigating patterns of comport concerning government corruption and fraud" in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

"Information technology's a shame that we see this type of scheme, one after another," Rodríguez said. "This is the type of case that'southward been seen and so much, involving federal funds, and it's shameful."

The trouble of corruption has raised concerns on Capitol Hill about billions of dollars in disaster relief money existence sent to the island. And the arrests come every bit the territory continues its efforts to dig itself out of what The Wall Street Journal says in the largest municipal defalcation in U.S. history.

A argument from the Natural Resources Committee pointed out that "the arrests took identify against the backdrop of the Puerto Rican people's ongoing struggle to receive federal relief money years later Hurricane Maria wiped out significant portions of the island'due south infrastructure and economy."

President Donald Trump has criticized Puerto Rican officials in the wake of Hurricane Maria, tweeting that all they practise "is complain" and "inquire for more coin." He said the island's politicians are "grossly incompetent, spend the coin foolishly or corruptly" and "only take from USA."

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San Juan Mayor Carmen YulÍn Cruz, who has feuded with Trump over his treatment of the disaster relief for Puerto Rico and his denial of the official death cost of more 3,000, expressed concern in a tweet Wednesday that the arrests could hurt the fight for more federal disaster relief from Washington.

"Puerto Rico is much more than the difficult arrests we faced today," she said in a tweet. She said that while the allegations were "shameful" and an embarrassment for the isle, "there are people who however need help."

"This much needed aid should non exist 'weaponized' and used for political purposes."

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Cruz, who announced she is running for governor in 2020, has been a fierce critic of Rosselló, and she said the argument from Grijalva was "proof" that he does not have brownie in Washington.

"The governor of Puerto Rico and his administration have at present given President Trump the ammunition he needed," Cruz said, according to The Mail service.

"Maintaining the trust of the people is a constant challenge," Rosselló said in a statement on Wednesday. "This trust is torn when public officials or those tied to them are accused of crimes of corruption.

"As governor I presume the responsibleness and commitment to gainsay this evil in all instances."

"Announcing a goose egg-tolerance attitude toward corruption is easy. Taking meaningful steps to prevent and punish it is leadership," Grijalva said Wednesday. "Gov. Rosselló has piddling time and much to practise to restore public organized religion in his regime, and I urge him to take a housecleaning approach as quickly and thoroughly as possible."

Contributing: The Associated Press

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