Puerto Rican officials indicted in sweeping corruption probe

Two former members of Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló’s administration were indicted Wednesday on bid-rigging and corruption charges — prompting the chair of the House committee overseeing the territory to call for the governor’s ouster, according to a report.

The arrests come just a month after Congress approved a disaster-aid bill for the island over the objections of President Trump, who said Puerto Rico’s officials are “incompetent or corrupt.”

Federal prosecutors say former education secretary Julia Keleher, former Puerto Rico Health Insurance Administration executive director Angela Avila-Marrero and four other people steered government contracts to unqualified, friendly outfits in order “to benefit and enrich themselves through fraud and the theft of government funds,” according to an indictment unsealed in US District Court for the District of Puerto Rico Wednesday.

“It was alleged that the defendants engaged in a public corruption campaign and profited at the expense of the Puerto Rican citizens and students,” Neil Sanchez, the special agent in charge of the U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General’s Southern Region, said Wednesday.

“This type of corruption is particularly egregious because it not only victimizes taxpayers, it victimizes those citizens and students that are in need of educational assistance.”

The six are accused of improperly diverting $15.5 million in federal funding to unqualified contractors between 2017 and 2019 — with $2.5 million passing through the insurance administration and the rest spent by the education department.

They are variously charged with wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy, according to the 32-count indictment. There was no evidence Keleher or Avila-Marrero personally benefited from the scheme. Keleher left the education department in April and Avila-Marrero departed the insurance administration in June.

Among the others arrested was Alberto Velázquez-Piñol, who allegedly took advantage of his connections to health and education honchos to secure federal contracts and illegally paid for lobbying using federal money.

Rosselló was not involved in the investigation.

But US Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D–Ariz.) — who chairs the Natural Resource Committee overseeing Puerto Rico — called on him to resign.

“We’ve crossed that crucible now,” he said, according to the Washington Post. “The restoration of accountability is so key going forward.”

Rosselló planned to return early from a European vacation to huddle with lawmakers.

“To maintain the trust of the people in the institutions of the government is a constant challenge that all of us who work in public service have,” he said in a statement. “That trust is torn when public officials or those related, are accused of crimes of corruption.”

Trump resisted sending aid to the island following the devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017, arguing that it would be squandered by corrupt bureaucrats.