Posted on 01/07/2009 7:17:30 AM PST by Ebenezer
Former Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá and former Governor's Office Secretary Aníbal José Torres are two of the targets of an investigation federal authorities are conducting related to alleged payments made by developer and PFZ [Properties, Inc.] owner Joel Katz involving the Costa Serena project, sources told EL VOCERO.
According to the sources, the case is before a grand jury. Katz is said to have paid "thousands of dollars" in installments during the negotiation process for the buying and selling of the land. The sources maintain that Katz and other witnesses have appeared before the grand jury.
Katz was the person who informed federal authorities about this case when he was interrogated about the [corruption] case against former New Progressive Party Senator Jorge de Castro Font. EL VOCERO reported on November 14 that federal authorities were investigating alleged payments by Katz to a high official in the Governor's Mansion.
In March 2007, Acevedo announced during his State of the Commonwealth address that the government was going to expropriate the 62-acre plot of land on which PFZ proposed building 880 hotel rooms, 434 housing units, 42 tourist-residential units, 4,900 square meters of commercial space, and 1,393 parking spaces.
An assessment done by the McCloskey, Mollet & Bonin firm for PFZ set the value of the property at $5.8 million. PFZ and the [Puerto Rico Department of Natural & Environmental Resources] did not reach an agreement on acquiring the property, for which the company sued the agency and the Trust for Public Land for $81.2 million.
Katz, who is "Person 5" in the De Castro case, allegedly paid the former legislator approximately $132,000 in cash between 2003 and June 2008.
The indictment does not identify Katz as "Person 5" who allegedly paid De Castro. However, the former politician's defense identified Katz as "Person 5" in a motion. According to the indictment, "Person 5" had made some payments to De Castro in January 2003 but discontinued such afterwards.
At De Castro's urging, a third party contacted "Person 5" in mid 2004 to ask that payments to the legislator resume since he [De Castro] was powerful and could become President of the Senate. At that same time, "Person 5" was forced and intimated into calling De Castro and apologizing for having discontinued the payments.
During that conversation with the politician, "Person 5" pledged himself to pay again. After beginning to receive those payments, De Castro dedicated himself to defending the businessman's interests when the chance came in the Senate.
It is alleged that, when "Person 5" stopped payments in June 2008, De Castro sent him threatening e-mail messages.
ping
Just when Acevedo thought he was in enough trouble with the feds,.........
I think they just elected a Republican Governor in PR, so I suspect the former governor is a Dem. No mention of political affiliation in the story. That cinches it, right?
As they say in New Orleans, “Yeah you right!”
By the way, Republican Luis Fortuño was sworn in on Friday. During the ceremony, Acevedo (who is already facing 9 federal corruption charges) was loudly booed by the crowd, and shouts of “Crook!” could be heard.
No one on FR should ever post a header without indicating the party affiliation. EVER!
He's a democrat and was a delegatee to their convention.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.