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Guatemalan former President Alfonso Portillo on Tuesday pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to laundering money.
Portillo admitted his guilt in an appearance before federal Judge James Patterson and he is now awaiting sentencing, which will be performed on June 23, according to what sources with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York told Efe.
The 62-year-old former leader could be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine of $500,000.
Portillo was extradited to New York in May 2013 from Guatemala to face charges of conspiring to launder money he obtained illegally during his 2000-2004 mandate.
The former Guatemalan president was charged in January 2010 by the federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan with one count of conspiracy to launder tens of millions of dollars in U.S. bank accounts.
Portillo’s extradition to the United States was authorized in November 2011, but he was not brought here from Guatemala until May 2013, a month after the Constitutional Court there rejected his first appeal.
Published in Latino Daily News