Former Puerto Rico Mayor Gets 5 Years After Being Caught In “High Profile Bribery Case”

A former Puerto Rico mayor faces 5 years in prison after he was caught on tape in a “high-profile bribery case”. 

Ángel Pérez Otero was sentenced on Monday as part of a wider federal crackdown on government corruption in Puerto Rico, ABC News reported this week. 

Otero had previously been found guilty of conspiracy, bribery back in March, charged with awarding contract and expediting invoice payments while getting kickbacks of thousands of dollars.

Federal authorities said the scheme ran from late 2019 to May 2021. 

Back in March, the Department of Justice wrote about the scheme: “According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Ángel Pérez-Otero, 52, was involved in a bribery conspiracy in which, from approximately late 2019 through May 2021, he accepted thousands of dollars in cash bribes on a regular basis from the owner of a construction company.”

“In exchange for these payments, Pérez-Otero agreed to obtain and retain contracts for the company and ensured that its invoices were promptly paid,” the release continues. 

“Pérez Otero was placed under arrest by FBI agents on Dec. 9, 2021, after a Colombian businessman, Oscar Santamaría, along with former Cataño Mayor Félix “el Cano” Delgado Montalvo, agreed with the Federal Prosecutor’s Office to reveal a scheme in which businessmen paid bribes in exchange for contracts,” the San Juan Daily Star expounded.

This week the DOJ put out another release stating:

“The former mayor of the municipality of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, was sentenced today to five years and three months in prison for his involvement in a bribery scheme in which he received cash payments in exchange for awarding municipal contracts and expedited payment of invoices related to those contracts.”

Mayors of the towns of Rincon, Guayama, Humacao, Aguas Buenas and Trujillo Alto have also been sentenced on Federal bribery charges, the ABC report says.