Moved to cells 51 months after allegedly robbing nuns

TWO NICARAGUAN men accused of of a scam that robbed a group of nuns, and 17 others of $6 million while posing as investment bankers through a Panama company have been moved from house arrest to preventive detention over two years after the event.

The defendants created and registered Investments and Financial Services, Inc. in Panama  and posed  as Investment bankers.

They were sent to cells in Nicaragua on, Tuesday, December 1, after being under house arrest since August 2013, when they were first  reported.

The injunction was issued by the Seventh District Judge Criminal Trial of Managua, Octavio Rothschuh, at the request of the victims, through the Public Ministry.

The judge  held  a special hearing on  Monday in

The defendants are businessmen Paguaga Hugo and Alvaro Montealegre the  latter, brother of the president of the opposition Independent Liberal Party, Eduardo Montealegre.

Both, along with the fugitive Roberto Bendaña, face charges for crimes of aggravated fraud, fraudulent offering of excess credit and organized crime.

Rothschuh also reported that hearing the oral and public trial against the accused, also at the request of the victims will be scheduled.

Failure to date has delayed the trial for two years and three months.

The defendants were charged in 2013 by a group of nuns Sisters of St. Teresa of Jesus, who denounced the alleged fraud.

The scam has been calculated by the prosecution about $6 million.

They picked up the savings of their victims by promising huge profits, but did not return the money when asked.