Colombia’s comptroller on Tuesday charged 13 judges and magistrates for a pension scam that provided high-up judiciaries with unearned inflated pensions.
As a result of the indictment, the 13 judges and magistrates could be found liable for the amount scammed from the government and lose their shadily gained pensions to the state if the comptroller finds them guilty, according to newspaper El Espectador.
The “pension carousel” scam entailed judges and magistrates swapping around, promoting or simply creating positions when a term is up or someone is out of a job, concocting a kind of “carousel” with their judicial positions in order to acquire the fullest possible pensions and benefits, in some cases allegedly being able to triple their original pensions, reported W Radio.
The judicial pension scam has been under investigation by a House of Representatives commission since March this year although the judges involved were implicated in November of last year. According to the comptroller’s press release, the discrepencies have been going on for several years with charges dating back to at least 2007.