The appeal of former Puerto Rico representative María Milagros "Tata" Charbonier Laureano, convicted on corruption charges, will get oral argument on November 5 at the federal courthouse in San Juan. A three-judge panel of the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston will hear the case in its courtroom on the fifth floor of the federal court in Old San Juan.
Charbonier Laureano will be represented by attorney Kendys Pimentel Soto, while the prosecution will be represented by Brendan B. Gants. At the same time, 9:30 AM, arguments will also be heard on the appeal filed by her husband, Orlando Montes Rivera. Both were found guilty of conspiracy, theft of federal funds, bribery, kickbacks, honest-services wire fraud and money laundering, in a scheme alleged to have netted $100,000.
The indictment said Charbonier Laureano inflated the salary of her then Capitol employee, Frances Acevedo, so that part of the publicly funded increase would be passed back to the legislator, and that her husband took part. In May 2024 she was sentenced to eight years in prison; Montes Rivera is serving four years and nine months.
Her defense filed a 148-page appeal brief citing alleged errors it says warrant vacating the January 2024 guilty verdict, while Montes Rivera argued his trial should have been held separately. Pimentel Soto argued the money did not reach the former representative but went to Jonathan Alemán, her office director, who allegedly had an extramarital relationship with Acevedo and had been an FBI informant since 2018, although the investigation began in 2020 after she fired him.