The lawyers of the former Secretary of Education, Julia Keleher, filed a motion on Monday requesting the Federal Court to dismiss the seven corruption charges against him, in relation to the accusation filed in July 2019.
Said charges of conspiracy to commit fraud and electronic fraud are related to the awarding of contracts to the company BDO Puerto Rico, whose former president Fernando Scherrer is also listed as accused.
“Since the prosecution never alleges that Ms. Keleher lacked the authority to award the contracts and amendments to BDO, she cannot be charged with having intended to cause pecuniary damage to the government by exercising its discretion over how to allocate the funds that it had the power to commit ”, sustains the motion presented by Ms. María Domínguez and attorneys Javier Micheo and Carlos Andrew.
“The prosecution, at most, alleges that the award of contracts and amendments to BDO were infected for political reasons and the improper disclosure of DOE (Department of Education) information to BDO and that BDO intended to use a portion of the product of the contract to pay commissions, allegedly in violation of the contracting rules “, read the motion.
According to the lawyers, “this does not constitute a scheme whose purpose is to deprive someone of money or property. Rather, it alleges the corruption of a fair and transparent contracting process, resulting in BDO obtaining contracts or contract amendments to perform services for the DOE. ”
Pending at endi.com for an update.
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