Federal: DE’s former director of technical education admits to stealing more than $200 thousand | Local

After more than a year of research, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office The plea agreement reached by the former director of the announced today Technical Education Programme No Department of Education, Calvin Pagan La Luzfor stealing more than $200,000 from the agency and attempting to disguise them as payments to a company unauthorized under the country’s laws.

Similarly, the contractor Javier Santiago Rodriguez and his company, Star Enterprises Inc., also raised their hands in thanks for an agreement.

Agents from the federal Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General raided local division offices this morning and…

Thus, they are all now guilty of charges of theft of federal programs.

According to the plan, Pagan worked as a La Luz education employee and lived with Santiago Rodriguez at the Parque de la Fuente condominium in San Juan. Between June 2019 and August 2021, the two men created a scheme to defraud a public agency of $213,201.07.

The Technical Education Program administers vocational funding to public post-secondary institutions.

The Department of State revoked Star Enterprises Inc.’s certificate of incorporation in December 2019 for clearly not complying with the country’s laws, so it has not been able to contract or do business in the country since that month.

Despite this, Pagan La Luz authorized payment of $213,000 to Starr Enterprises for the supposed work.

Similarly, in September 2020 he used an “intermediary company” that was authorized as a contractor to mask $59,999 and called it Star Enterprises Inc. and Santiago Rodriguez for services that were never performed.

In November 2017, Star Enterprises Inc. All this despite having already failed to renew its certification to be eligible to contract with education and other agencies.

A sentencing hearing for all of them is scheduled for May 22 at 10:00 a.m. and they face a maximum of 10 years in prison, $250,000 bail and three years of probation.

Alexander L. is the prosecutor in this case.

Political analyst Jay Fonseca reviews the controversy surrounding the Education Department, hours after the morning…