Julia Keleher and co-defendants seek dismissal of corruption charges

Former Secretary of Education Julia Keleher and some of the co-defendants in the corruption case asked the federal court to dismiss the charges against her.

Through separate motions, the dismissal was requested by Keleher, former Fortress adviser Alberto Velázquez Piñol, former president of BDO Puerto Rico Fernando Scherrer and the owner of the company Intelligent Gran Solutions (IGS), Aníbal Jover Pagès.

Keleher’s lawyer, María Domínguez, argued that the amended indictment raises seven different conspiracies.

Of that total, the attorney has indicated that Keleher is charged only in the first three schemes. In relation to these three schemes, “Ms. Keleher did not commit any of the alleged offenses,” Dominguez raised.

“In fact, charges 1 to 11 and 12 to 15, 16 to 23 fail to establish an offense,” he added, adding that “they fail to allege that any victim has been deprived. or attempted to deprive of any money or tangible property. “

He noted that, “instead, the vast majority of allegations are about a deficient theory of honest service fraud coated as money or property fraud.”

“As was the case with the original indictment in this matter, the effort of the amended plea to cover these deficient allegations of honest service fraud as a traditional fraud of money and property fails as a matter of law,” he said. delimited.

In connection with the allegations against Keleher, two co-accused – sisters Mayra and Glenda Ponce Mendoza – pleaded guilty in May last year.

For his part, Scherrer’s motion states in his motion that his role in the indictment “can be summed up in one sentence: it is alleged that he was president of the firm BDO when alleging alleges that the violation (of law), signed some government contracts on the part of BDO as its representative, helped to hire and recruit a contractor (Alberto Velázquez Piñol) and exchanged two emails with this contractor that do not reflect no illegal intent or conduct “.

He raises that “that’s all, there is not a single allegation that suggests he personally did something illegal, agreed to do something illegal or personally knew about something wrong done by others.”

“He is charged only with ordinary, everyday legal actions, of which he had no reason to believe they were illegal,” he continued.

Meanwhile, among the approaches of Velázquez Piñol, he points out that the documents of the Public Ministry show that he had a professional relationship with BDO that began before the merger with Parissi, in which he received commission contracts and that, in addition , carried out consulting work with the Department of Education and the Administration of Health Services (ASES).

“There is nothing illegal in this and the Public Ministry did not mention in the amended indictment of any applicable law in this regard,” he argued.

In turn, Jover filed three motions seeking dismissal of various charges against him. “From the outset, ASOS received the services for which it negotiated and paid,” Jover’s motion stated.

“The alleged misrepresentation of the‘ relationship ’between IGS and the individuals who provided the services did not alter the negotiation itself when the contracts were signed and did not fool ASOS into contacting IGS, nor did it change the quality of what services rendered, “he added.

If this is the case, the former director of ASES Ángela Ávila joined several of the motions of the co-defendants and submitted an individual, requesting that before the case separately, to “prevent it from being stained with prejudice and risk guilt for association “.