Tegucigalpa, November 26 (teleSUR-RHC)-- A Honduran judge on Wednesday ordered one of the country’s former vice presidents to be confined to his home over charges he engaged in fiscal fraud and falsification of public documents.
The public prosecutor, who made the announcement via Twitter, has accused Jaime Rosenthal of defrauding the state treasury by more than US$1 million in 2014 and falsifying public documents to reduce taxes for the importation of frozen meat from Brazil through his company Alimentos Continental.
For alleged health reasons, the hearing was held in Rosenthal's private residence, where he will remain under police custody, reported EFE.
The president of the Continental Group will appear at an initial hearing on January 6, 2016, according to the judicial body.
The U.S. has also accused Rosenthal, a banker as well as a politician, together with his son Yani and nephew Yankel of money laundering linked to drug trafficking.
Rosenthal served as one of Honduras’ vice presidents from 1986 to 1990. The three men and their Continental Group “were charged in connection with a conspiracy carried out over several years to launder proceeds from crimes of drug trafficking and bribery abroad through accounts in the United States," read the U.S. indictment in October.
Yani, a former Honduran minister (2006-2009), was released last week after being arrested in the U.S. for more than two weeks.
Following the U.S. legal complaint against the Continental Group and the three Rosenthal men, several of their companies have been seized.