Former Puerto Rico Senator Abel Nazario-Quiñones has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for misappropriating municipal funds to finance his 2016 senatorial campaign, according to the United States Attorney’s Office.
The sentence was handed down by United States District Court Senior Judge Francisco A. Besosa following a thorough investigation by the FBI, which collaborated with the Puerto Rico Comptroller’s Office and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Office of Inspector General.
During an audit in August 2016, the PR Comptroller’s Office uncovered irregularities in Yauco’s payroll records, revealing employees who either never reported for work or only sporadically. This led to Nazario-Quiñones’ indictment and subsequent guilty plea on September 30, 2022.
Nazario-Quiñones confessed that he had orchestrated a scheme with co-defendants Edwin Torres-Gutierrez, Claribel Rodríguez-Canchani, Humberto Pagán-Sánchez, Kelvin Ortiz-Vegarra, Ramón Martes-Negrón, Juan Rosario-Núñez, and Eric Rondón-Rodríguez. These individuals were hired on paper as municipality employees, but their salaries were funneled into Nazario-Quiñones’ campaign instead of for actual municipal services, totaling $50,426.00.
The investigation was led by United States Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow of the District of Puerto Rico, FBI Special Agent in Charge Joseph González, and Michael C. Mikulka from the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Anderson prosecuted the case.
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Key Facts
- State: Puerto Rico
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes|Public Corruption|White Collar Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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