U.S. Attorney: 26 charged in a $3.5 million Hacienda scheme; indictment, not conviction

On October 29, 2025, U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow announces that a grand jury, on October 23, charged 26 individuals and companies: two Hacienda officials, ten individuals, and fourteen companies, in a wire-fraud and bribery conspiracy to defraud Hacienda of more than $3.5 million. November 2021 through April 2025. An indictment is not a conviction. This note invents no verdict. Distinct from the Hacienda employee who pleaded guilty over $5 million. That note is not rewritten here. Separate pots.

Javier Relta-Lebrón and Harry E. Muriel-Falero, the office alleges, took payments to falsify records on at least 24 accounts. Relta-Lebrón: commercial IVU. Muriel-Falero: false credits and wiped income-tax debts. If convicted, up to 20 years on wire fraud and conspiracy, the USAO says. The FBI is investigating. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marie Christine Amy is prosecuting. «An indictment is merely an allegation», the release says. This desk leaves it there.

What remains is 26 charged, more than $3.5 million, and a no to conviction. A reader who wants October 29 has the USAO URL at the foot. This is not original reporting.

Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Puerto Rico. https://www.justice.gov/usao-pr/pr/twenty-six-individuals-and-companies-indicted-puerto-rico-tax-debt-scheme-involving-over