The Third Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice ratified the criminal responsibility of two senior members of the Acción Ciudadana Party for defrauding the State during the 2010 political campaign, through the illegal collection of amounts of political debt, through the use of more than 200 false contracts.
Maynor Sterling Araya, former treasurer of the group, and Manuel Antonio Bolaños Murillo, former PAC official were convicted in 2016 but after some time the PAC filed an appeal with the Third Chamber to claim for the more than 800 million colones he has to pay for the damage committed against the State.
This Wednesday, the Third Chamber issued the sentences of six and three years of prison against Sterling and Bolaños respectively, for the crime of fraud.
With the evidence provided, the Office of the Prosecutor confirmed that both defendants carried out a criminal plan by which they generated false contracts under the heading of “special services”, which they proceeded to liquidate within campaign expenses, thereby obtaining a collection greater than the state contribution.
The amount of the defrauded to the detriment of the public treasury amounted to ¢516,000,000, according to the ruling of the Court of Appeal of the First Judicial Circuit of San José.