By Samuel Rubenfeld
A Puerto Rican senator and a businessman were each sentenced to four years in prison for their roles in a bribery scheme.
Former Sen. Hector Martinez Maldonado was ordered to pay a $17,500 fine. Juan Bravo Fernandez, the former head of Ranger American, a large Puerto Rican private security firm, was ordered to pay a $175,000 fine.
“In Puerto Rico, corruption and democracy cannot co-exist,” said Joseph Campbell, special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Juan field office, in a statement.
They were convicted in March. Maldonado and another senator, Jorge de Castro Font, accepted a trip to Las Vegas to watch the May 14, 2005, boxing match between Winky Wright and Felix “Tito” Trinidad, a popular Puerto Rican boxer, in exchange for ushering through two bills in the senate that would benefit Fernandez’s business interests.
Font pleaded guilty on Jan. 21, 2009, and was sentenced in May 2011 to five years in prison.
The trip, according to prosecutors, included first-class airfare, hotel rooms at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, tickets to the boxing match worth $1,000, hotel rooms in Miami for the return trip, as well as meals and drinks.
Source: wsj