Former Miss Colombia Valerie Dominguez has announced that she will collaborate fully with authorities in proceedings regarding her alleged involvement in the Agro Ingreso Seguro (AIS) scandal.
Dominguez began the interrogation process in front of Prosecutor General Viviane Morales on Wednesday, two days before investigators will go before a Bogota judge to place charges against the ex-beauty queen, who allegedly benefited illegally from the misallocation of AIS subsidies.
“I am completely ready to collaborate with the justice system because I fully trust it,” Dominguez said, after the six-hour interrogation, Colombian media reported Thursday.
Investigators said that for now they will only place charges against Dominguez, and will not request the imputation of security measures, as recently occurred in the case against former Ministry of Agriculture Secretary General Juan David Ortega, since the es-beauty queen already returned the $163,000 (COP 306 million) she received from the Ministry of Agriculture, after news of the scandal broke in 2009.
Four members of Dominguez’s boyfriend Juan Manuel Davila’s family are also under investigation for the same case, and will have charges officially brought against them on Friday, April 29.
A number of former Minister of Agriculture employees and various wealthy landowners have been implicated in the AIS scandal, which regarded the intentional misallocation of public funds intended as subsidies for rural farmers.