DOJ: Vázquez-Botet and Morell sentenced to 5 years for Superaqueduct extortion

On January 30, 2007, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that René Vázquez-Botet and Marcos Morell-Corrada were each sentenced to five years in prison for their role in an extortion scheme tied to the Superaqueduct project on Puerto Rico’s north coast. Judge José Antonio Fusté also imposed on each three years of supervised release and $100,000 fines. Both surrendered that same day to begin serving. This note sticks to DOJ release 07-crm-059: the peg is sentence after a guilty verdict (Nov 3, 2006), not a pending indictment.

According to DOJ, in early 1995 the defendants — together with José Granados-Navedo, then a representative — extorted a group of contractors who obtained contracts to build a public-works project of $372 million: a water pipeline of about 40 miles from Arecibo to San Juan. They demanded more than $2 million in exchange for help securing and preserving those contracts.

Before the scheme was interrupted in summer 1999, Vázquez-Botet (ophthalmologist and former PNP campaign director) demanded and received more than $300,000 in cash and ordered additional payments to third parties of about $60,000 for 1996 campaign debts; the jury also found he did not report taxes on those payments and on about $150,000 from his medical practice. Morell-Corrada (former party secretary general) received $125,000 between Sep 1997 and May 1999, mostly under an allegedly fictitious retainer. Granados-Navedo had pleaded and admitted receiving more than $175,000.

The FBI and Public Integrity Section investigated with assistance from the Office of the Comptroller. José Cobian Guzmán cooperated at trial. This note invents no amounts outside the official DOJ release. Primary: justice.gov archives OPA. Cousin: none. Topic politics.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice. https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2007/January/07_crm_059.html