The former mayor of Colombia capital Bogota was sentenced to 18 years in prison Tuesday, weeks after being convicted for his role in a major embezzlement scandal.
Former Mayor Samuel Moreno of the Socialist Polo Democratico party was one of numerous Bogota and national politicians who embezzled large sums of money through kickback schemes in the construction of public works.
However, Moreno was not sentenced for the elaborate public works kickback scandal that made him arguably more famous than any of his predecessors and cost the capital city many millions of dollars.
Instead, the former mayor will spend the coming years in prison because of his involvement in another kickback scheme related to the city’s ambulances.
In this ambulance kickback racket, 9% of a $20 million investment disappeared in the pockets of dirty politicians.
The sentence followed years of legal battles, mainly procedural issues raised by the defense in an apparent attempt to stall the process.
Bogota ex-mayor continues to stall corruption trial 4 years after arrest
The prosecution had asked the judge to sentence Moreno to 24 years in prison, the maximum sentence for a corruption-related crime.
The former mayor has been detained at a Bogota police academy since his arrest in 2011 and is still awaiting trial on the public works corruption charges, a scandal that dwarfs the one the former mayor was sentenced for.