Special prosecutor appointed in ex-Cataño mayor’s corruption case
By The Star Staff
The Special Independent Prosecutor Panel (PFEI by its Spanish initials) on Monday appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the former mayor of Cataño, Félix “el Cano” Delgado Montalvo, regarding the sums of money he allegedly received illegally while omitting information in his official ethics reports.
Special Prosecutor Emilio Arill García was appointed to investigate the case, and will have a term of 90 days to fulfill his assignment, as provided by law.
The process began with a referral to the PFEI by the Government Ethics Office (OEG), where criminal violations of Article 269 of the 2012 Criminal Code and Article 5.7 of Law 1-2012 were alleged.
In summary, it is alleged that Delgado Montalvo omitted information in his financial statements during the years 2016 to 2020. In 2020, he also allegedly omitted information related to a contribution registered in the name of his wife.
Likewise, he allegedly stopped reporting the illicit income received from 2017 to 2021, according to the pre-agreement signed by him in the U.S. District Court in San Juan.
Another violation of the Ethics Law consisted of not reporting the receipt of gifts whose value exceeded $250.00.
The OEG report highlighted that for the years 2017 to 2020, Delgado stated that he did not have cash, when the pre-agreement shows that he had $105,000.
The crimes to be prosecuted against Delgado Montalvo are under commonwealth jurisdiction, as a result of which they were not dealt with in the federal forum. The principle that governs the PFEI is to prevent impunity for the crime in all aspects of the applicable laws and regulations.