“Nope”. With that monosyllable, Governor Pedro Pierluisi denied this Monday that he had asked his friend, Joseph Fuentes Fernández, a federal convict for corruption, to create a Political Action Committee to raise money for his 2020 gubernatorial campaign.
The chief executive’s brief response came upon his departure from the Department of Justice and answering one last question from the journalists. Previously, Pierluisi, together with the Secretary of Justice, Domingo Emanuelli, had announced the recruitment of 13 prosecutors who will work in the Program of Specialized Rooms in Cases of Controlled Substances, known as “Drug Courts”.
Fuentes Fernández was sentenced last week to one year and two months in prison, and three years of supervised release by the federal federal judge Joseph Laplante. After Fuentes Fernández was sentenced for creating the Super PAC, Save Puerto Rico, which did not report his collections to the Federal Election Commission, his lawyer Joaquin Monserrate Matienzo revealed that his client had “immolated” himself so as not to affect the chief executive and other people.
Monserrate Matienzo affirmed that Fuentes Fernández created the Super PAC at the request of Pierluisi.
Likewise, the lawyer assured that Fuentes Fernández covertly refused to record Pierluisi, who has been his friend since they were both university students.