/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/FN6ADFGMZRJB7D2CXM7EPFZPEA.jpg?w=1068&resize=1068,0&ssl=1 "U.S. court sentences ex-Bolivian interior minister to 6 years in bribery scheme")
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Jan 4 (Reuters) – A federal U.S. court sentenced former Bolivian Interior Minister Arturo Murillo to practically six years behind bars on Wednesday for conspiracy to commit cash laundering, the U.S. Department of Justice stated in a press release.
Murillo pleaded responsible in October to receiving at the least $532,000 in bribes from a Florida-based firm in trade for serving to the corporate safe a profitable tear fuel contract with Bolivia’s protection ministry.
He had laundered the cash by way of the U.S. monetary system, the division stated.
Murillo was sentenced to 70 months in jail in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Another former Bolivian official and three Americans had been sentenced in the United States final June after additionally they pleaded responsible to roles in the identical scheme, the division stated.
A former senator, Murillo served as interior minister between 2019 and 2020 through the interim authorities of President Jeanine Anez, who took energy following political turmoil that led to President Evo Morales resigning and leaving the nation.
Murillo fled after Morales’s occasion retook energy in 2020 and was arrested in Florida in May 2021.
Bolivia’s authorities has requested Murillo’s extradition to Bolivia, the place he faces a bunch of prison fees.
Bolivian Attorney General Wilfredo Chavez stated in a news convention that Murillo’s sentencing would advance extradition proceedings and that the federal government would take authorized motion to be paid $532,000 “as a victim” of Murillo’s crime.
“Justice has spoken in the United States. We are satisfied with this judicial decision and we are going to make efforts for judicial actions (of extradition),” stated Chavez.
(*6*)Murillo’s former boss Anez is serving a 10-year jail sentence for her position in what Bolivian authorities say was a coup that pressured Morales out of workplace in 2019.
Reporting by Brendan O’Boyle and Daniel Ramos; Editing by Chris Reese and Bradley Perrett
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