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US justice sentences former Bolivian minister to 70 months in prison

2023-01-05T22:59:30.021Z


Former Bolivian Government Minister Arturo Carlos Murillo was sentenced by a US court to 70 months in prison for conspiracy to launder bribe money


The then Minister of the Interior, Arturo Murillo, during a press conference in La Paz on October 17, 2020 on the eve of the country's general elections.

Credit: AIZAR RALDES/AFP via Getty Images

(CNN Spanish) --

Former Bolivian Government Minister Arturo Carlos Murillo was sentenced by a US court to 70 months in prison for conspiracy to launder bribe money he received in exchange for helping a US company win a government contract. Bolivian, according to a statement from the United States Department of Justice issued this Wednesday.

According to the statement, Murillo, 58, received more than half a million dollars in bribes from a Florida-based company in exchange for helping that company win a contract in 2019 for approximately $5.6 million to provide tear gas and other non-lethal equipment to the Bolivian Ministry of Defense.

Murillo was minister of the then interim president Jeanine Áñez.

Bolivia's then interim government minister, Arturo Murillo, gestures during an interview with AFP in La Paz, on December 6, 2019. Credit: AIZAR RALDES/AFP via Getty Images

The former official and others involved, the statement said, "laundered" the proceeds from that bribe through the United States financial system, including bank accounts in Miami. Murillo received approximately US$130,000 in cash bribes at the home of a family member in Miami, the Justice Department said.

Four other people involved who had already pleaded guilty in September 2021, received sentences ranging from 26 to 42 months in June 2022.

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On October 20, the Justice Department reported that Murillo had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, the text explains, which could carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

The Miami office of the Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigated the case.

Murillo was arrested in the state of Florida in May 2021, when he was accused of money laundering and a bribery scheme carried out between November 2019 and April 2020. CNN is seeking the reaction of Murillo's defense to the sentence.

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2023-01-05

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