The federal prosecutor’s office today filed suit against a former adviser to the Mayor of Mayagüez, José Guillermo Rodríguez, and six other people for alleged crimes of electronic fraud and money laundering.
Among the defendants is former judge Arnaldo Irizarry who also served as legal counsel to the city council until 2019. Federal authorities have filed charges against Steve Minger, Stephen Kirkland, Alejandro Riera-Fernández, Joseph Kirkland, Roberto Mejill Tellado and Eduardo García-Jiménez. According to the indictment, García-Jiménez also served as an advisor to the Mayagüez Municipality and the company Mayagüez Economic Development (MEDI). While, according to the indictment, Mejill Tejado was a contractor who advised the city council financially.
According to the indictment, between March 2016 and June 2018, the defendants coordinated a plan to defraud Mayagüez Municipality and MEDI of funds that belonged to the City Council. Likewise, the fraud arose after defendants misrepresented a $ 9 million investment with council and MEDI funds. There are four criminal charges against Irizarry: one for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two for wire fraud and one for money laundering.
For the settlement, the defendants allegedly used some 13 existing businesses and other spirits to receive and transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Mayagüez Congregation. According to the federal prosecutor’s office, these funds were intended for investment.
According to the charges, the $ 9 million investment came about after the Mayagüez Municipality received a millionaire allocation for improvements to the City Council’s Trauma Center between 2014 and 2016. Mayagüez received about $ 8.7 million of the money allocated, which was transferred to the city council. Thus, the municipality then transferred the total of $ 9 million to MEDI – an entity created to promote the economic development of the municipality and promote infrastructure projects – to make an investment, as advised by García-Jiménez.
García-Jiménez promised the municipality that investments would yield a large economic return with a return of more than 8%. After receiving the $ 9 million, García-Jiménez bought several bonds in the US Treasury with an interest rate of 2%. Instead, García-Jiménez – along with the other defendants – made transfers to personal accounts. The former adviser made a $ 1.8 million payment to the council assuring him it was a payback period. However, according to the indictment, García-Jiménez would have withdrawn the money from the initial $ 9 million investment.
On several occasions, García-Jiménez is said to have transferred these funds to other bank accounts in consultation with Stephen Kirkland, financial adviser at Union Banc Investment Services (Ubis). After transferring the balance to an account with LPL Financial, García-Jiménez tried on several occasions to hide from Individual C – a financial officer of the said institution – that said funds belonged to the Mayagüez Municipality.
After several transactions with four banking entities, the defendants began making withdrawals from these accounts for personal use. Of this $ 9 million, Joseph Kirkland, Stephen’s brother and president of a financial institution, transferred approximately $ 10,000 into a personal account at Heritage Oak Bank; about $ 500,000 was transferred to García-Jiménez’s personal account; a transfer of $ 100,000 to Stephen Kirkland and $ 1.14 million to a Garcia-Jiménez account at Wells Fargo bank.
In 2016, García-Jiménez is said to have transferred $ 1.8 million to a MEDI account to make the company and the municipality believe they had generated a return on investment, when in reality it was funds obtained from the original $ principal amount. 9 million. .
The charges alleged that the defendants used the money to buy a sea-going vessel, jewelry, clothing, school fees, restaurants, utilities, credit card payments, home decor, property improvements such as the construction of a swimming paradise. pool. and payments on a mortgage.
Between April and December 2016, Irizarry is also said to have received $ 126,100 of said investment.
On September 28, 2016, García-Jiménez asked one of his employees – Individual D – to send a letter to Mayagüez Municipality’s Director of Finance indicating that MEDI’s $ 9 million was still being invested. However, this money was no longer invested, according to the charges. In November 2017, García-Jiménez again asked the council to maintain the investment for three to five years as it could get 18% in interest rates and generate about $ 87,300 per month.
In April 2018, García-Jiménez again urged the council that the $ 9 million was still intact and ready to be reinvested.
Look at the accusation here:
21-082 Indictment edited by Metro Puerto Rico on Scribd