Puerto Rican Governor Faces 19 Counts

 

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Puerto Rican Governor Faces 19 Counts

By KIRK SEMPLE Published: March 27, 2008

MIAMI — Anibal Acevedo Vila, the governor of Puerto Rico, has been charged with 19 crimes related to the financing of three political campaigns from 1999 to 2004, including conspiracy to violate federal campaign laws and making false statements to federal investigators, according to a federal indictment unsealed on Thursday.

Andres Leighton/Associated Press

Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila in 2006 during the 54th anniversary celebration of the establishment of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Related Text of the Indictment (PDF)

The indictment, which emerged from a grand jury investigation lasting more than two years, also charged 12 other people associated with Mr. Acevedo’s party, the Popular Democratic Party.

“Electoral fraud undermines the essence of our representative form of government and operates to the detriment of every Puerto Rican,” said Rosa Emilia Rodriguez-Velez, the United States attorney in San Juan.

But in a statement, Mr. Acevedo, 45, who is running for re-election, denied that he had commited any crimes and contended that the indictment was politically motivated. He called the indictment “a spectacle designed to do me harm.” He said he would address the nation at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday, and turn himself in to federal authorities on Friday morning.

Mr. Acevedo’s attorney, Thomas Green, also issued a statement on Thursday, calling the indictment “an unprecedented and undeserved intrusion by the federal government into the affairs and electoral process in the Commonwealth,” and saying that “these charges against the governor will be vigorously contested and exposed as senseless.”

The Associated Press reported that at least five others named as co-conspirators in the indictment were taken in handcuffs into the United States federal building in San Juan early Thursday morning.

The 27-count indictment accuses the defendants of conspiring to illegally raise money to pay off large debts stemming from Mr. Acevedo’s campaigns in 2000 and 2002, when he was running for the post of Puerto Rico’s nonvoting representative in Congress.

In the scheme, the indictment says, Mr. Acevedo and a legal advisor, Inclan Bird, solicited and then reimbursed illegal campaign contributions from members of the governor’s family and staff. In an effort to circumvent contribution limits, the governor and his associates disguised the source of the contributions by listing them under other people’s names, the indictment alleges.

The indictment also accuses a group of businessmen in and around Philadelphia of funneling similar illegal contributions from their own family members and staff to Mr. Acevedo’s campaigns. In return, the indictment says, Mr. Acevedo helped the businessmen obtain contracts from Puerto Rico’s government agencies for themselves and their clients.

The indictment says Mr. Acevedo and his associates violated a public financing law by exceeding campaign fund-raising and spending limits during his successful 2004 gubernatorial bid.

Under this scheme, the indictment says, Puerto Rican businessmen made large and unreported donations to the campaign by disguising them as payments to the campaign’s public relations and media company. The campaign would paper over the contributions by drawing up fake invoices to make them appear to be payments for legitimate business expenses.

The indictment also accuses Mr. Acevedo of using campaign funds for personal expenses without reporting it on his income tax returns, as is required.