Former Guatemalan president Alfonso Portillo, who has pleaded not guilty to embezzling state funds including US$2.5 million given by Taiwan, is due to appear in a New York court next week.
His lawyers are likely to argue that he should be released on bail, but although it could take months before his actual trial gets underway, it is unlikely that he will be released on bail.
Portillo, 61, was extradited from Guatemala to the US last week because he is alleged to have laundered embezzled money through US banks.
The Taiwanese cash is only part of a much bigger case involving tens of millions of US dollars prosecutors say he stole from the Guatemalan Treasury.
Portillo appeared for the first time before US District Judge Robert Patterson on Tuesday, and entered a not-guilty plea.
“After three years of fighting his extradition, Alfonso Portillo has finally arrived in the United States to answer for his alleged misappropriation of millions of dollars intended for the benefit of the people of Guatemala and which he laundered through US banks,” US Attorney Preet Bharara said.
Portillo served as president of Guatemala from January 2000 to January 2004.
According to a statement issued by the US Department of Justice, Portillo may have started his alleged “criminality and corruption” with the money given by Taiwan.
“First, in 2000 and 2002, Portillo embezzled approximately 2.5 million dollars US provided by the Government of Taiwan’s embassy in Guatemala,” the statement said.
“In 2000, the Taiwanese embassy issued three checks totaling 1.5 million dollars US, drawn upon a New York bank account created for the purpose of funding a Guatemalan program designed to purchase books for school libraries,” it said.
Prosecutors maintain that Portillo endorsed the checks and then deposited them in a Miami bank.
None of the money was spent on the Libraries for Peace program and prosecutors say most of it was diverted to accounts held in the name of Portillo’s daughter and his ex-wife in Paris.
When the corruption allegations first surfaced eight years ago, Taiwanese officials said that some of the money was meant to print teacher’s manuals and that several copies of the manuals had been delivered to the embassy “as proof” that the money had been properly used.
The embassy said that checks had been made out to Portillo personally at the request of the Guatemalan government.
When Guatemalan officials began their probe, Portillo fled to Mexico but was later acquitted of embezzlement charges by a court in Guatemala.
Since then he had been fighting extradition to the US.
“Portillo has been charged with converting the office of the Guatemalan presidency into his personal ATM,” Bharara said.
Aside from the Taiwanese money, Portillo is alleged to have taken about US$4 million from the Guatemalan Ministry of Defense and huge sums of government money from one of the country’s national banks.
If convicted, he could face a prison term of up to 20 years and a fine of about US$500,000.
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