Jobs for the boys earns mayor 7 years

On the day that Panama’s soccer team lost its final World Cup game to Tunisia in Russia, the mayor of Arraiján began a jail term that will see him still behind bars when the next World Cup is played in  Qatar.

On Thursday, June 28 The Third Criminal Court of La Chorrera condemned Mayor Pedro Sánchez Moró  and,  his director of Human Resources,  Omar Rugliancich, to 84 months in prison (7 years of prison)

At the same time, he is disqualified from public functions for 5 years, for the crime of embezzlement, to the detriment of the Municipality he led.

In July 2017 Sánchez Moró hired a group of players and technicians of the soccer team Santa Gema Fútbol Club of the Panama Football League (LPF),  to work in the Mayor’s Office.

They received salaries, without attending to work, a practice known as a “botella”, and its widespread use by lawmakers currently under investigation in Panama’s National Assembly.

Santa Gema Fútbol Club is owned by Sánchez Moró who is a member of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD).