The FBI
PRHTA director of the office of the treasury Silvino Cepeda-Ortiz was charged in United States District Court in San Juan with bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. According to the United States Attorney in Puerto Rico, he solicited and received two kickbacks of $5,000 each for contracts with the authority.
The FBI conducted the investigation that led to the arrest.
Cepeda-Ortiz has been with the PRHTA since 2000 and became treasurer in 2012, the El Vocero news site reported.
"Public officials who abuse their positions of trust for personal financial benefits, undermine the integrity of our public agencies and the availability of federal funds used to finance important projects, such as our highway infrastructure," said U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez. "We will not relent in our efforts to combat this type of corrupt scheme, whereby a public official requests bribes in order to pay for services duly rendered by third parties to an agency."
If convicted Cepeda-Ortiz faces up to 10 years in prison.
A PRHTA spokeswoman didn't respond to a request for a comment.
The arrest came after an FBI raid Nov. 25 on the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority headquarters. No arrests were made in that raid.
It also came after the Puerto Rico House of Representatives passed a measure late on Tuesday to prop up the PRHTA through an oil tax increase. This measure passed 26 to 23, with one representative absent and another representative abstaining from the vote.
The tax raise will increase taxes per barrel of oil to $15.50 from $9.25. Currently all the tax goes to the PRHTA. Revenue from the new higher tax would go to the PRHTA, the Puerto Rico Infrastructure Finance Authority and the Integrated Transportation Authority, which operates Puerto Rico's public transportation.
The governor has proposed having PRIFA sell up to $2.9 billion in bonds. The bond sale would be supported by PRIFA's new oil tax income.
Proceeds would be primarily used by PRIFA to pay off the PRHTA's $2 billion debt to the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico.
If it became law, the bill would commit Puerto Rico to replacing the current sales and use tax with a value added tax. It would commit the government to eliminate income taxes for individuals with incomes of less than $35,000 or families with incomes less than $70,000.
The government has been working on a major tax reform that was widely reported to include these measures. However the government hasn't completed the reform package. Adopting these measures now would commit the government to these central measures, while giving it time to finish honing the whole package.
The bill would also require the creation of a working group to look into possible PRHTA revenue sources.
If adopted, in future years the tax would be adjusted upward for inflation.
The Puerto Rico Senate has now taken up the bill. The Senate may alter the bill. If the Senate alters it before passing it, the House would have to consider the bill again.
What the Senate will do with the bill is "too unpredictable to say anything right now," an aide for Sen. José Nadal Power relayed Nadal Power as saying. "There are still many decisions to be made." Nadal Power is president of the Senate Committee on Finance.
Puerto Rico's constitution provides that the legislature has nine more days to pass the bill, a source close to the governor said.
