US Prosecutor’s Office assures that former president Hernández received bribes from the Rosenthal family

SAN SALVADOR – The Rosenthal family, one of the richest and most influential in Honduras, was accused this Friday by the United States Attorney of bribing the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, with commercial contracts to launder money when Hernández was president.

This is not the first time the Rosenthals have appeared in the public eye. In 2015, the United States government designated three of its members as “narcotics traffickers.” Two of them pleaded guilty.

At the time, the Rosenthals operated a massive conglomerate of companies in Honduras, from soccer clubs to one of the Central American country’s largest banks through their Grupo Continental.

Although the Rosenthal family lost control of their empire following forfeitures and criminal charges against Jaime, Yani and Yankel, all Rosenthals, US prosecutors say this case is separate from the charges against Hernández, the report said. Reuters.

The findings come a year after Hernández was extradited to the United States, where he is accused of receiving millions of dollars from drug traffickers in exchange for protecting them in investigations.

The Rosenthals were known in Honduras for holding important positions in the Central American government, and their last name, many times, it sounded presidential in the list of candidates.

Marlon Duarte, the Rosenthals’ attorney, denied the allegations. “Juan Orlando Hernández was against all the Rosenthals, he only took advantage of what he went through in 2015 to take away all their assets,” the lawyer told Reuters in a telephone interview arguing that prosecutors will have a hard time proving that the family bribed the former ruler.

While prosecutors seek to prove that the former president built an empire of corruption in Honduras, from New York, Hernández awaits his trial postponed to september of this year.

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