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Former Minister of Áñez, sentenced to more than five years in prison in the US

Former Minister of Áñez, sentenced to more than five years in prison in the US

The United States Department of Justice reported Wednesday that former Bolivian Government Minister Arturo Murillo was sentenced to 70 months in prison.

The former official was convicted “for conspiracy to launder bribe money that he received in exchange for corruptly helping an American company win a lucrative contract with the Bolivian government,” the Justice statement reads.

According to US authorities, Murillo received at least $532,000 in bribe payments from a Florida-based company for helping her obtain a contract of approximately $5.6 million in 2019 “to provide tear gas and other non-lethal equipment to the Bolivian Ministry of Defense.

Murillo’s accomplices, Sergio Rodrigo Méndez Mendizábal, Luis Berkman, Bryan Berkman and Philip Lichtenfeld, pleaded guilty and were sentenced in June 2022.

The former minister and those indicated “laundered the proceeds of the bribery scheme through the US financial system, including bank accounts in Miami” and the former official received around $130,000 in cash payments at the home of a relative of his in that South Florida city.

The current Minister of Government of Bolivia, Edward del Castillo, also confirmed the sentence.

“The Bolivian people are informed that the US justice system ordered 7 years [sic] prison for the former de facto minister of Jeanine Áñez, Arturo Murillo. Demonstrating once again that the denunciations that we made as a national government were true, ”he tweeted.

Murillo, 58, had pleaded guilty on October 20, 2022 to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The federal authorities of the United States detained in Florida, between May 21 and 22, Murillo and his then chief of staff, Rodrigo Méndez Mendizábal, both officials of the interim government of President Jeanine Áñez, who led the country between 2019 and 2020.

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