According to Infobae: Ana García investigated for alleged money laundering

Argentina’s magazine, Infobay, published that the nation’s former first lady, Ana García de Hernández, is being investigated by the Ministry of Public Affairs (MP) for alleged money laundering ahead of her trial in New York, United States. , former president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted of drug trafficking.

“An MPH source, who spoke to Infobae on the condition of anonymity for security reasons, confirmed that, even before the trial, an investigation is open against the former first lady (Ana Garcia) for her role in possible money laundering. Her husband had obtained it illegally. Illegal and for the role she played in the irregular transfer of immovable family assets by the Honduran state after the United States requested the extradition of the former president,” the portal details.

“Between March 21 and 22, 2022 – Infobae reports – while the Honduran Supreme Court was already clearing procedures for Hernandez’s extradition, his wife transferred assets worth USD 6.7 million, as revealed by Infobae’s investigation.”

“For now, Ana García de Hernández has declared herself a pre-candidate for the presidency of the National Party. She did so four days after 12 New Yorkers convicted her husband of drug trafficking,” Infobey points out.

The complainant was murdered

The Infobay portal, in its report titled “Who are the politicians and former Honduran officials in the crosshairs of justice after the conviction of Juan Orlando Hernandez for drug trafficking,” asserts that former prosecutor Marlene Banegas was killed after being handed over to prosecutor Oscar Chinchilla. USB with video showing JOH interacting with drug traffickers.

“At the offices of Graneros Nacionales in Choloma, an industrial city located 270 kilometers north of the capital Tegucigalpa, JOH made a deal with drug trafficker Giovanni Fuentes Ramírez, with whom he was a partner in a drug laboratory and who also gave money to replace the political defense.

“Sanchez, Graneros’ accountant, recorded at least two conversations between JOH, the financiers and the drug trafficker. He saved the recording along with the video taken by the video equipment installed in the office on a USB flash drive. He made copies. He gave one USB to prosecutor Marlene Banegas and another to Christian Ayala, a former police officer he trusted. Banegas was killed a few weeks after she gave all the information to her boss, then-prosecutor Oscar Chinchilla; Ayala also suffered the same fate.

Trial in NY

“Questioned by one of former President Hernández’s defenders as to why he did not bring that evidence to court and why he fled to Honduras, accountant Sánchez calmly replied that he feared for his life,” the publication notes.

“(Prosecutor) Banegas sent the recording to the attorney general and they killed her a few weeks later… I was going to go back to Honduras when they killed Christian Ayala, but they were already asking about me after they killed him,” he said. Sanchez, from the stand regarding his departure from the Central American country to the United States, where he entered with a tourist visa.

“At the trial in New York, through the testimony of this person, it was discovered that the former prosecutor had a chinchilla in his hands, at least since 2015, the first strong indications that Juan Orlando Hernandez was involved in drug trafficking and political corruption”

“What happened after the then Attorney General got the information was not that the Public Ministry started an investigation into JOH; What happened was that Marlene Banegas, the prosecutor who was supposed to have given the information to Chinchilla, was killed shortly after doing so,” he adds.

“Plaintiff Banegas’ face was one of those printed on posters, displayed in Columbus Park, in front of the court building where JOH was tried in New York, during a vigil for relatives of drug trafficking victims in Honduras. Hours before the jury delivered its verdict on the former Honduran president,” Infobey points out. (JS)