Nicaragua Files Charges
In Bank Bailout
A special prosecutor on
Monday charged a top
opposition leader, a
newspaper publisher and
37 other people with
fraud and influence
trafficking.
Former presidential
candidate Eduardo
Montealegre and several
other former government
officials are among
those accused of
profiting from a US$500
million bank bailout
eight years ago.
Special Prosecutor
Armando Juarez turned
the complaint over to a
judge and told reporters
that charges could lead
to 10 years in prison.
Montealegre, who lost
the 2006 presidential
election to Daniel
Ortega, said at a news
conference that the
charges are part of plan
by Ortega's Sandinista
party "to install a
dictatorship little by
little."
Montealegre, who is now
running for mayor of
Managua, was treasury
minister and a member of
the board of directors
for the Nicaraguan
Central Bank at the time
of the bank crisis.
Also charged was Jaime
Chamorro Cardenal,
publisher of the
newspaper La Prensa and
brother-in-law of former
President Violeta
Chamorro.
Ortega's Sandinista
government of the 1980s
forced the closure of La
Prensa from 1986 to
1987, prompting
international protests.
Chamorro was on the
board of one of the
banks involved in the
scandal.
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