Puerto Rican legislator and others indicted in public corruption case

A Puerto Rican lawmaker and several others have been indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with their alleged engagement in years-long scheme to steal government money, according to the Department of Justice.

The indictment charges Puerto Rican House of Representatives member María Milagros Charbonier-Laureano, her spouse Orlando Montes-Rivera, her son Orlando Gabriel Montes-Charbonier, and her assistant Frances Acevedo-Ceballos.

"The indictment charges Charbonier, Montes, Montes-Charbonier, and Acevedo with conspiracy; theft, bribery, and kickbacks concerning programs receiving federal funds; and honest services wire fraud," according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release. "Charbonier, Montes, and Montes-Charbonier are facing two counts of money laundering. The indictment also charges Charbonier with obstruction of justice for destroying data on her cell phone." 

The DOJ said that the indictment alleges that the illegal plot spanned a period of years stretching from early 2017 until July of this year, and involved the lawmaker dramatically increasing her assistant's salary. The assistant would keep a portion of the excessively high salary and use various methods to supply some of the funds to the lawmaker and her family.

"According to the allegations in the indictment, from early 2017 until July 2020, Charbonier, Montes, Montes-Charbonier, and Acevedo executed a scheme to defraud the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico by engaging in a theft, bribery, and kickback scheme," according to the DOJ. "In early 2017, Charbonier inflated her assistant Acevedo’s salary from $800 on a bi-weekly, after-tax basis to $2,100; this amount increased to nearly $2,900 by September 2019. Out of every inflated paycheck, it was agreed that Acevedo would keep a portion, and kick back between $1,000 and $1,500 to Charbonier, Montes, and Montes-Charbonier," the DOJ press release explained.

The obstruction of justice charge against the legislator stems from the allegation that she deleted material from a phone after she found out there was an investigation and a warrant for a phone.

"After learning of the existence of the investigation into illegal activities in her office and after learning that a warrant had been obtained for one of her phones, Charbonier allegedly proceeded to delete certain data on the phone," the DOJ wrote. "In particular, Charbonier deleted nearly the entire call log, nearly all WhatsApp messages, and nearly all iMessages associated with this phone, the indictment alleges."