A criminal court in El Salvador sent a criminal proceeding against former President Mauricio Funes (2009-2014) for money laundering to trial on Thursday, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
“Former President Mauricio Funes is sent to trial for accepting a small plane as a gift in exchange for granting the construction of the San Isidro bridge, over the Lempa River, to a Guatemalan company,” the institution published on social networks.
He added that “this work was valued at more than 8 million dollars” and that the Third Investigating Court admitted more than 230 documents, 34 witnesses and expert evidence. He indicated that Funes “is prosecuted for the crime of special cases of money and asset laundering,” a case for which Miguel Menéndez, a former government official, was convicted.
Menéndez is considered by the Public Ministry as the second in command of an alleged corruption network within the Government that would have collaborated with the embezzlement of more than 351 million dollars.
Funes, who governed the country between 2009 and 2014 under the banner of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN, left), has lived in Nicaragua since 2016 and received the nationality of that country. EFE
