CPI: the plunder of public funds behind the chat

On July 17, 2019, the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) published an investigation that places, behind Governor Ricardo Rosselló Nevares’s Telegram chat, a network of influence peddling and contracting amid the fiscal crisis. According to the CPI, the main scheme and several secondary ones with the same modus operandi were orchestrated from La Fortaleza by close associates of the Governor and — the report says — with his knowledge.

At the top of the scheme the CPI places Elías Sánchez Sifonte (former Transition Committee chair, lobbyist and close friend of Rosselló), publicist Edwin Miranda Reyes and press strategist Carlos Bermúdez Urbina. All three appear among the 12 participants in the 889 pages of the chat revealed days earlier. The modus: plant staff and contractors in key advisory and communications posts, control information and share privileged contracting data in exchange for commissions and payments.

Four sources told the CPI that Sánchez, without registered direct contracts, placed clients in agencies and charged commissions of up to 25% of the amount and fixed retainers of up to $50,000 a month. The report documents interventions before Housing (client AECOM vs. Tu Hogar Renace; secretary Fernando Gil Enseñat said keeping Adjusters International saved $21 million versus AECOM’s proposal), Hacienda (client GILA), Microsoft (more than $100 million in contracts in the administration; AmpliFund license for $11 million), Corrections (Carolina Catering, a $300 million contract per sources) and ASES (Vital bid linked to federal charges against Ángela Ávila, Fernando Scherrer of BDO and Alberto Velázquez Piñol).

Other CPI figures: at least 65 contracts for $12.6 million tied to companies associated with Raúl Maldonado and his son; Miranda and his firms, more than $50 million in contracts with 22 agencies; Bermúdez (Ojo Creativo), $540,000 in 16 contracts with seven agencies; Unidos por Puerto Rico, $41 million in donations and under federal inquiry. CSA Architects & Engineers: $26 million in 10 agencies.

Journalistic investigation and federal charges alone do not equal a conviction. An awarded contract is not adjudicated theft. This note does not impute criminal guilt.