Funes, who already has a 14-year prison sentence for having negotiated a truce with the gangs during his administration, is now facing a new process in which the Prosecutor’s Office proposes eight years in prison.
The Public Ministry requests that the maximum penalty be imposed for the crime of fraud against the Treasury in its modality of tax evasion. In addition, a civil liability sentence for $200,499.52, an amount that includes a fine and interest.
“The hearing is being held in relation to the tax year from January to December 2014 in which Mr. Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena falsely declared taxes and with this defrauded the Treasury,” one of the prosecutors in the case told reporters.
The 64-year-old former president ruled El Salvador from 2009 to 2014, lives in Nicaragua under the protection of President Daniel Ortega, who in 2019 granted him nationality to avoid his extradition. He was not present at the trial nor did he appoint a defense attorney, but he was assigned one ex officio to be able to continue the process in the absence of the accused, thanks to a criminal reform of September 2022.
The Prosecutor’s Office explained that, according to expert reports, the income not declared in 2014 is 271,857.49 dollars and by not doing so, he allegedly evaded the payment of 85,157.25 dollars.
The Public Ministry requests that the maximum penalty of eight years in prison be imposed on him for the crime of tax evasion in its modality of tax evasion, and a civil liability conviction for $200,499.52, an amount that includes a fine and interest.
The Prosecutor’s Office has carried out various expert reports with the purpose of establishing the commission of the act that the ex-president is accused of and says it has “abundant documentation provided by the Ministry of Finance.”
In addition, it has documentation on Funes’ relationship with private companies in which he obtained unjustified capital income and expenses for which the origin of the resources was not justified.
A Salvadoran court recently sentenced former president Funes to 14 years in prison for negotiating a truce with the gangs to lower the homicide rate in exchange for benefits for their leaders in prisons.
In this case, his former Security Minister, General David Munguía Payés, received an 18-year prison sentence.
With this criminal process, Funes became the second former Salvadoran president convicted of violating the law during his tenure. The previous one was Tony Saca, who governed from 2004 to 2009 and who in September 2018 was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the diversion of more than 300 million dollars from state coffers.
FUENTE: Associated Press
