Guatemalan Justice Seizes Ex-President's Ranches and Bank Account

Edited by Ivan Martínez
2015-09-23 12:39:21

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Guatemala City, September 23 (teleSUR-RHC)-- A Guatemalan court has ordered the confiscation of a bank account and six countryside houses belonging to former president Otto Perez Molina, who resigned on September 3rd over corruption allegations, said judge Marco Antonio Villeda on Tuesday. 

On September 12th, Villeda also said six other bank accounts belonging to Molina – representing a value of some $692,000 - were seized. The latest bank account seizure, which happened last Friday, contained a total of $183,000.      

As for the properties, they were allegedly purchased via the company Vistas Servicios Electronicos, whose legal representative Victor Hugo Hernandez is suspected of acting as Molina's front man.      

Molina resigned shortly after being stripped of his immunity by the Congress; he is currently imprisoned and faces charges of leading a corruption ring called “The Line,” involving embezzlement of social security funds.     

The country's Public Ministry also announced on Tuesday that three judges had been arrested over corruption charges, including one that would be directly related to the “Line.”        

Judge Marta Sierra de Stalling is accused of being bribed earlier in April in exchange of acquitting various members of “The Line.” 

The scandal was disclosed thanks to the U.N.-backed international commission against impunity in Guatemala (Cicig)'s independent investigation, a model demanded in neighboring Honduras despite recommendations to the contrary by the Organization of the American States.


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