DHAKA: Former Honduran First Lady Rosa Elena Bonilla de Lobo was arrested for embezzling about 510,000 US dollars from public funds, reports New Straits Times.
Bonilla, 51, whose husband Porfirio Lobo served as president from 2010 to 2014, was arrested on Wednesday (February 28) from her home in the capital Tegucigalpa by Military Police officers.
The arrest was announced by an anti-corruption mission of the Organization of American States.
Prosecutors accused Bonilla of transferring the money from a government fund into her personal account five days before her husband's term ended in January 2014.
She was implicated in an investigation showing the equivalent of $500 000 had allegedly been siphoned off into her personal account six days before her husband stepped down as president on January 27, 2014, Duarte said.
Ana Maria Calderon, head of MACCIH, an anti-graft body in the country set up under the Organisation of American States, told a news conference the former first lady's office was suspected of embezzling a total $4m between 2011 and 2014.
Some of the money - $170 000 - was a donation from Taiwan, Calderon said.
She added that at least nine employees working for Bonilla were thought to have been involved in the alleged plunder. The charges were for embezzlement of public funds, money laundering, and criminal association.
According to the National Anti-corruption Council, Bonilla's official bank account also received $638 000 from a state agency for children.
Duarte said Bonilla would be brought before a criminal court judge handling corruption cases who would decide whether to jail her or not.
BDST: 1622 HRS, MAR 1, 2018
SI
