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Article Excerpt
Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos moved quickly to fulfill one of his major campaign promises by ordering his attorney general to investigate colleagues and Cabinet members of former President Arnoldo Aleman (1997-2002). The arrest last month of Byron Jerez, Aleman's former director of the tax department (Direccion General de Ingresos, DGI), began the unraveling of a vast network of government fraud and embezzlement.
Jerez was at the center of the "checazo" corruption scandal in 2000. While head of the DGI, he was forced to resign over the disappearance of US$600,000 in tax revenues (see NotiCen, 2000-04-13) and was later accused of stealing US$412,000 in disaster relief funds (see NotiCen, 2000-06-15, 2002-02-07).
In March, government auditors began an investigation of Aleman's assets and the 157 improperly issued DGI checks that gave their name to the checazo scandal. Prosecutors also began investigating the US$1.3 million missing from the government's television Channel 6 and arresting associates of Aleman (see NotiCen, 2002-04-04). By April, only legislative immunity seemed to prevent Aleman's arrest.
Virgilio Godoy, vice president in the administration of former President Violeta Chamorro (1990-1997), told Inter...
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