Puerto Rico

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Puerto Rico mayor, two others arrested on corruption charges

Federal authorities said that Mayor Miguel Ortiz is accused of defrauding the federal government of nearly $3 million in a separate scheme that began in 2013 and ended in 2016.

Officials said he is accused of financing projects without prior approval from Puerto Rico's Department of Education and obtaining funds after misrepresenting the projects' cost. Authorities said contracted companies and the municipality then received amounts much higher than what was outlined.

Ortiz also is accused of receiving nearly $33,000 in cash from one of the companies and its owner.

A spokeswoman for Ortiz could not be immediately reached for comment.

The arrests come as Puerto Rico struggles to recuperate from Hurricane Maria and tries to restructure a portion of its $70 billion public debt load.
 
Anger erupted in Puerto Rico on Saturday after a blogger posted a video of the goverment warehouse in the southern coastal city of Ponce filled with water bottles, cots, baby food and other basic supplies that had apparently been sitting there since Hurricane Maria battered the U.S. territory in September 2017.

The blogger, Lorenzo Delgado, said he had received a tip about the warehouse but did not specify when. A group of people broke into the warehouse and began distributing supplies to those affected by the recent 6.4 magnitude quake that killed one person and caused damage across Puerto Rico’s southern region. More than 7,000 people remain in shelters as strong aftershocks continue.


Ponce Mayor María Meléndez said she was outraged, noting that she and other mayors were trying to find basic supplies since the quake. “I spent several days requesting cots and water,” she said. “They sent me to Cabo Rojo for the cots and to San Juan for the water. If I had known that those supplies were in that wharehouse, I would have demanded that they be taken out immediately. ”


Puerto Rico Governor Fires Emergency Response Director After Massive Warehouse of Unused Aid Discovered…

delivered for hurricane Maria in 2017!


UPDATE: Puerto Rico Governor Fires Two More Officials Over Hidden Emergency Relief Supplies…
http://2 more Puerto Rico officials fired after warehouse break-in
the latest fallout over the discovery of a warehouse filled with emergency supplies dating from Hurricane Maria in 2017.




 
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