DOJ: Guardiola Ramírez — sentença 33 meses por obstrução (kickbacks Tricon)

On August 15, 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that San Juan attorney Eugenio A. Guardiola Ramírez was sentenced to 33 months in prison for obstruction of justice related to federal investigations of a kickback scheme against a fast-food operator. Judge Héctor Laffitte (District of Puerto Rico) also imposed 120 hours of community service and three years of supervised release. Thomas O. Barnett (Antitrust Division) announced it: the Division will hold accountable anyone who tries to impede the investigative and judicial process.

Guardiola was indicted January 11, 2006 and convicted March 22, 2006 of conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction in GSA-OIG and federal grand-jury investigations of kickbacks to Tricon Restaurants International (later Encanto Restaurants). According to the indictment, between March and May 2004 he tried to conceal the nature of illegal payments from his client Gate Engineering Corporation and its president Albith Colón to Jorge Luis Matos Burgos (then a Tricon employee): persuading witnesses to give false information to the grand jury and GSA-OIG, and drafting a false services contract.

On May 19, 2005, Gate and Colón pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and kickbacks in exchange for Matos awarding Gate more than $1 million in Tricon electrical contracts (they awaited sentencing at the time of the release). Matos was convicted August 18, 2005 and sentenced November 15, 2005 to 12 months and a day plus two years of supervised release.

Indictment ≠ conviction; here the peg is the sentence after conviction. Primary: DOJ Antitrust 2006-08-15.

Fonte: U.S. Department of Justice. https://www.justice.gov/archive/atr/public/press_releases/2006/217772.htm