Bolivian anti-graft cop sent to prison in U.S. extortion case

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., (Reuters) – A former senior Bolivian anti-corruption official convicted of trying to extort $30,000 from a Bolivian businessman in Miami was sentenced yesterday to more than three years in a U.S. federal prison.

FBI agents arrested Mario Fabricio Ormachea Aliaga, an ex-deputy chief of Bolivia’s anti-corruption unit, in a sting operation on Aug. 31 after a meeting with Humberto Roca, the former president of AeroSur, once Bolivia’s largest private airline.

According to court documents, Ormachea traveled to Miami to meet with Roca, who faces charges of illegal enrichment in Bolivia. Prosecutors said Ormachea offered to get the charges against Roca dropped in exchange for the $30,000.

“The problem is it (was) not a single incident and this was not an aberration in Mr. Ormachea’s life,” U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenbaum said in a hearing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, before sentencing Ormachea to 37 months in prison.