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José Serrano accused of charging “tithes” to 500 collaborators
Posted On 12 Mar 2019
Ecuadornews:
Former Interior Minister and former President of the National Assembly, José Serrano, was denounced on Monday by a former adviser for the alleged collection of illegal contributions to some 500 employees.
The one who was one of his advisors, Víctor Rivadeneira, today presented a formal complaint in the General Prosecutor’s Office of the State, which attributes to Serrano in the collection of illegal contributions when he exercised the duties of head of the Interior (between May 2011 and November 2016).
Rivadeneira, who was Serrano’s advisor for two years, told the media at the entrance of the Prosecutor’s Office that he would have asked “about 500 public officials” money, under penalty of suffering some type of retaliation such as dismissals or reprimands.
“I have paid more than $ 2,000 in improper payments to the former official,” the complainant told the media.
He specified that he made those payments in installments of between 200 and 300 dollars, and he encouraged all those officials who had been victims of this situation, among whom he specified the police, to join in the denunciations.
The ex-adviser also linked María Fernanda Iglesias, former chief of the Interior Ministry’s office and adviser to the latter, as the “intermediary” for the collection of illegal payments.
And he explained that the mechanism to request money from his officials was done through “wasap messages” and that the amounts given were for “José Serrano’s retinue,” and that they had been used for “political rallies.”
The denunciation of Rivadeneira is made up of several documents in which are images of the conversations between Serrano and his advisers who paid those “tithes”.
In addition, the letter includes the actions of the personnel who worked for the former minister, the payroll of the linked officials and the receipts of the deposits of payments to the account of María Fernanda Iglesias as head of the ministerial office.
Similarly Rivadeneira advanced that in the coming days is going to join the complaint Francisco Piñeiros ex-adviser to collaborate with more information in the investigation.
A year ago, Serrano was dismissed as president of the National Assembly by lawmakers in a political trial-a figure for challenging high public officials-following a recording in which he allegedly conspired against the attorney general. (I)
