SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — On July 17, a federal grand jury returned a 17-count indictment charging Juan Carlos Cruz-Hernandez, Veronica Forte-Roig, Nancy Baez-Flores and Josselyn Figueroa-Rosario with participating in a bribery and wire fraud conspiracy and scheme to defraud the Puerto Rico Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTOP), announced U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico W. Stephen Muldrow.
Three of the defendants were arrested July 18 and will make their initial appearances before U.S. Magistrate Judge Marcos E. Lopez of the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. Baez-Flores is pending arrest.
According to court documents, Baez-Flores and Figueroa-Rosario were employees of DTOP assigned to work in the regional driver service centers located in Caguas and Carolina. Both were responsible for accessing driver and vehicle information, and among other things, possessed the ability to remove driver and vehicle fines. Cruz-Hernandez and Veronica Forte-Roig negotiated and made bribe payments to Baez-Flores and Figueroa-Rosario in exchange for certain official acts, including accessing DTOP information, obtaining duplicate documentation and eliminating driver and vehicle fines.
From November 2018 to October 2023, Baez-Flores received over $62,000 in bribe payments from Cruz-Hernandez and Forte-Roig. From April 2019 to June 2023, Figueroa-Rosario received over $7,000 in bribe payments from Cruz-Hernandez and Forte-Roig. Many of the bribe payments were made directly to Baez-Flores and Figueroa-Rosario via ATH-Movil.
“HSI is committed to investigating money laundering activities that pose a threat to our economy. It is imperative to prioritize any type of public corruption that facilitates crimes. These employees do not represent the dedicated employees of the government of Puerto Rico,” said Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Juan Special Agent in Charge Rebecca Gonzalez-Ramos. “This investigation was made possible with the support of the Puerto Rico Police Bureau and the Puerto Rico Department of Transportation.”
If convicted, a maximum penalty of five years in prison applies to the conspiracy and bribery charges; a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison applies for each violation of federal program bribery laws; and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison applies for each violation of wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and honest services fraud laws. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.
HSI investigated this case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Marie Christine Amy is prosecuting.
“The prosecution of public corruption offenses, at all levels of the government, remains a priority for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The bribery of government employees corrodes the public’s trust in vital institutions and will not be tolerated. Not at the municipal, commonwealth or federal level,” said Muldrow. “This indictment and today’s arrests reflect another step in the continued focus of the United States Attorney’s Office to bring criminals who engage in illegal bribery schemes to justice.”
An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
About HSI
HSI is the principal investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel and finance move. HSI’s workforce consists of over 10,000 employees, assigned to 235 offices within the United States and 93 overseas locations in 56 countries. HSI's international presence represents DHS’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.