By the
A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Prosecutor's Office of Probity,
Transparency, and Anti-Corruption
reported that the court upheld the
criminal responsibility sentence of
two members of the Citizen Action
Political (Acción Ciudadana, known
as PAC), for defrauding the state
with the illegal collection of
approximately ¢516,000,000 (about
$855,889) for political debt during
the 2010 election campaign.
Political debt is capital that the
government gives to the political
parties so that they can finance the
electoral campaigns. In the case of
this sentence, the accused presented
false information making the state
pay more money than was owed.
"The amount of defrauded to the
detriment of the State was
¢516,000,000, (about $855,889)."
according to the ruling of the Court
of Appeals of the First Judicial
Circuit of San José.
The accused is a man surnamed
Sterling-Araya, who was the
treasurer of the political party and
who was sentenced to six years in
jail, and another man surnamed
Bolaños-Murillo who was a member of
the party, who was sentenced to
three years in prison.
Both were found guilty of fraud in
December 2016 but appealed. The
court made the ratification of that
ruling yesterday.
"The resolution issued yesterday
morning leaves firm the sentences
of six and three years of prison,
respectively, that were imposed
for the crime of fraud," said the
court in its statement.
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The evidence
provided by the
Prosecutor's Office
showed that the
accused men "carried
out a criminal plan
through which they
generated false
contracts for the
special services item,
which they proceeded
to liquidate within
campaign expenses,
thereby they got a
higher charge of the
state contribution,"
said the prosecutor in
its statement.
Regarding this same
case, on Friday, March
29, an ex-deputy from
the same party,
surnamed Garro, was
also found guilty of
having lied in the
trial of the other two
defendants
Sterling-Araya and
Bolaños-Murillo.
Garro she was
sentenced to one year
in jail, by Judge Omar
White, of the San José
Criminal Court.
However, the judge
granted Garro the
benefit of conditional
execution of the
sentence.
The
conditional execution
of the sentence
allowed her to stay
out of jail.
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Should
the court speed final
sentencing in cases of
political fraud?
We would like to know
your thoughts on this
story. Send your
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