IZABAL – Police captured fugitive former Guatemalan president Alfonso Portillo in northern Guatemala yesterday, a day after US prosecutors indicted him on charges of laundering money stolen from foreign donations meant to buy children’s books.
Dozens of agents raided a ranch in the province of Izabal to execute the arrest, attorney general Amilcar Velasquez said.
An indictment unsealed on Tuesday in court in New York alleges that, in a four-year scheme starting in 2000, Mr Portillo embezzled $1.5 million (€1.1 million) in donations from Taiwan intended to buy school library books.
It accused Mr Portillo of endorsing cheques drawn from a New York bank and depositing them in a Miami account; the money then was transferred to a Paris account in the name of his ex-wife and daughter. – (AP)
