Puerto Rico's Governor Is Charged With Corruption

Puerto Rico's Democrats will vote June 1, near the end of the primary election process. While they are not allowed to vote in the general election, Puerto Rico's Democrats could prove a decisive force in the battle between Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).

At stake will be 55 delegates -- a number comparable to Oregon's -- to be apportioned by the percentage of the vote each candidate receives. Political observers there have said that Clinton has an edge, noting that her campaign was able to have the election switched from a caucus to a primary vote. To date, Obama has generally performed better in caucuses.

The criminal charges, returned by a grand jury Monday but unveiled to the public yesterday morning, put Acevedo Vila at the center of an eight-year-old alleged scheme to settle unpaid debts and evade election financing limits.

The problems date to 1999, when Acevedo Vila began to rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debts by running for a nonvoting spot in the U.S. House, the indictment said. He and his aides turned to subterfuge, taking money from relatives, engaging straw donors in the Philadelphia business community, and using corporate bank accounts and credit cards to hide the provenance of the cash, the indictment said.

Along the way, Acevedo Vila "personally participated in the solicitation, receipt and recording of" suspect contributions and closely tracked the decline in his campaign debts, according to the charging document filed against him. Prosecutors also detailed several incidents of personal enrichment, alleging that Acevedo Vila used illicit donations and campaign funds to pay his American Express bills for airfare to Orlando, Miami and Costa Rica.

He also received $57,000 worth of designer suits from employees connected to a firm identified in the indictment as "Company A," which performed campaign work for Acevedo Vila.

The indictment also accused Acevedo Vila of flouting spending limits in his 2004 run for governor by soliciting secret contributions. The allegation forms the basis of a charge that the governor bilked the commonwealth's treasury out of $7 million in public campaign funds.

Acevedo Vila and his aides, the indictment said, contacted the Office of Management and Budget, the Puerto Rico Housing Department, and the Puerto Rico Pension Fund to coordinate meetings and endorse the donors' clients for lucrative government contracts.

Attorneys for Eneidy Coreano Salgado, a former scheduler and administrator for Acevedo Vila, did not respond to telephone or e-mail messages.

Political corruption has plagued the commonwealth in recent years. Officials at an opposition party, the New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico, were convicted in 2006 of conspiracy, extortion and tax fraud and have been sentenced to five years.

Staff researcher Julie Tate and staff writer Mary Beth Sheridan contributed to this report.