WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd December, 2021) The mayor of Catano in Puerto Rico has entered a guilty plea to a charge of accepting bribes in exchange for receiving nearly $10 million for awarding municipal contracts, the US Justice Department said on Thursday.
"A mayor pleaded guilty yesterday in Puerto Rico on a criminal charge related to his involvement in a bribery conspiracy in which he received weekly cash payments in exchange for awarding municipal contracts to 'Company A,'" the Justice Department said in a press release. "In a separate indictment, a businessman was arrested ... on criminal charges related to his alleged involvement in a scheme to bribe the mayor."
Félix Delgado-Montalvo, 40, was the mayor and highest-ranking government official in the municipality of Catano, the release said. According to court documents, he unjustly enriched himself by accepting things of value, including cash payments. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, the release said.
Delgado-Montalvo "is scheduled to be sentenced on March 8, 2022, and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison," the release added.
A separate indictment returned on Wednesday alleges that around June 2017, Mario Villegas-Vargas, 42, of Gurabo, who owned an asphalt and paving company in Puerto Rico paid kickbacks and bribes to Delgado-Montalvo toreceive municipal contracts, according to the release.
