DEFENDANT SENTENCED ON CHARGES OF PERJURY, OBSTRUCTION OF INVESTIGATION OF THEFT FROM SAN JUAN AIDS INSTITUTE

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Assistant Attorney General Christopher Wray of the Criminal Division announced today that Rafael Pagan Santini was sentenced to 18 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release for his conviction on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice, suborning perjury and conspiracy in connection with a federal grand jury investigation.

Santini, 48, of San Juan, Puerto Rico was sentenced today by the Honorable Salvado E. Casellas of the U.S. District Court in San Juan. Judge Casellas also imposed a $3,500 fine.

Santini was convicted by a jury on June 2, 2003, after a four-week trial in U.S. District Court in San Juan, of perjury, obstruction of justice, suborning perjury and conspiring to obstruct justice, commit perjury and suborn perjury in connection with a federal grand jury investigation and the trial in United States v. Yamil Kouri, et al., 97-091.

The Kouri case involved allegations of theft of approximately $1.4 million in government funds from the San Juan AIDS Institute (“SJAI”). The Kouri case was investigated and tried in San Juan by Assistant United States Attorneys in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Puerto Rico. The defendants were tried in two separate trials from March 1999 through June 1999 and in January and February 2000.

At the Kouri trial, the government introduced evidence that over the period from its founding in 1987 through mid-1994 when it was closed, money entrusted to the SJAI was diverted for payment of bribes to continue its funding and, later, to thwart the investigation into the misuse of government funds. Money was also diverted to pay personal expenses of some of the officers, directors and consultants and to fund AIDS programs in Latin America and Mexico which were not authorized uses of the funds. All defendants were convicted.

Pagan Santini, a doctor licensed to practice medicine in Mexico, was a witness at the first Kouri trial and was convicted for his role in transporting evidence which had been fabricated in Mexico for introduction by the defense at trial and preparing other witnesses to testify falsely.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Puerto Rico was recused from this matter. The case was tried by Trial Attorneys Mary Butler and Armando Bonilla of the Public Integrity Section, headed by Section Chief Noel L. Hillman. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, San Juan Division.

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