A fiscal watchdog has seized assets of Colombian presidential candidate Sergio Fajardo for alleged financial mismanagement when he was governor of Antioquia between 2012 and 2015.
According to local media, the assets of Fajardo and his former Government Secretary Santiago Londoño were seized as the financial watchdog announced charges against the anti-corruption politician for overspending.
The presidential candidate is also investigated by the Comptroller General’s Office over a suspicious loan.
The former governor from a well-connected construction family allegedly ignored financial caps and allowed his office to be overcharged for the construction of rural police stations.
The excessive cost cost the tax payer $650,000, said the Antioquia comptroller, according to liberal newspaper El Mundo. Conservative newspaper El Colombiano said Fajardo had only overspent $650.
The still-investigated loan allegedly cost the tax payer another $83,000.
Fajardo refused to respond to questions by El Colombiano that surged just weeks after announcing his candidacy in the 2018 presidential elections in which is he is one of the leading candidates.
As mayor of Medellin, a position he held between 2004 and 2007, the governor ordered the construction of multiple libraries.
The most famous of these libraries, the Rey de España Library in the northern Santo Domingo neighborhood, was forced to shut down six years after inauguration over construction failures.