On this day, the First Sentencing Court of San Salvador will install the special hearing to purify the evidence in the corruption case linked to the Government of former President Mauricio Funes, known as “Public Looting”, among them, the former first lady, Vanda Pignato, accused of money and asset laundering, embezzlement and tax evasion of some $351 million from the Presidential House.
The purpose of the hearing will be to eliminate the evidence that is considered unnecessary or superabundant, both from the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR) and from the technical defense of the former officials.
“A special hearing has been scheduled in the First Sentencing Court for the purpose of purging any evidence that the parties consider not necessary for its reproduction, since the case involves several crimes, several accused, and multiple pieces of evidence,” confirmed the defense attorney in the case, Gustavo Huezo.
The depuration of the evidence, both expert and documentary, to which both parties have been summoned, is prior to the appointment of the trial date.
“If all that evidence (admitted in the investigation stage) is going to parade in the trial or not, the hearing is only for that purpose… the trial date that is stipulated is from January 17,” added Bone.
The defense attorney explained that the trial will last approximately three months, and because it does not take longer with “repetitive” evidence, the hearing will be held.
It was in June 2018, the Attorney General of the Republic, presented the accusation for the former officials of the presidential house, who were charged with the crimes of embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion, for the diversion of $351 million from the item of Reserved Expenses of the Presidency of the Republic and diverted to private accounts, during the five-year period of Mauricio Funes between 2009 and 2014.
The Eighth Investigating Court sent 10 defendants to trial in July 2022, including: the former First Lady of the Republic, Vanda Pignado; the former Secretary of Communications of the Presidency, David Marciano Rivas; former Institutional Financial Manager, Francisco Rodríguez Arteaga; the former president of Banco Hipotecario, Manuel Rivera Castro; the former head of Treasury, Jorge Alberto Herrera Castellano; former head of Accounting, Rigoberto Palacios Panamanian, the financial technical assistant, Pablo Gómez, as well as Miguel Menéndez, owner of Cosase, known as “Mecafé”, Luis Miguel Ángel García and Juan Carlos Guzmán Berdugo, father of Ada Mitchell Guzmán.
