For serving a sentence of 50 and 38 months in prison under house arrest, The Fourth Criminal Court of the Bucaramanga Circuit released Claudia Toledo and her husband Lenin Pardo, key witnesses in the corruption case linked to former department governor Richard Aguilarfor alleged irregularities in the reinforcement contract for 22,000 million of the Alfonso López Stadium.
It is worth mentioning that the married couple, in addition to paying part of the penalty, they had to pay a fine of approximately 60 million pesos for their complicity in the acts of corruption in the contracting of various public works.
The two witnesses were key in the criminal proceedings against the former governor of Santander, Richard Aguilar, for possible irregularities found in six contracts for more than $600 billion during the defendant’s administration between 2012 and 2015.
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In turn, the lawyer for this couple, Jaime Lombana, pointed out “Both Claudia Toledo and her husband Lenin Pardo, served their sentence and are now free, also in this process loyalty and transparency prevailed with the administration of justice, In addition, with this truth it was clearly demonstrated that there was a collusion to hide some acts of corruption that had occurred in the hiring of the department of Santander, and now the benefits and a sentence served are recognized.
Claudia Toledo Former Secretary of Infrastructure of Santander, and her husband Lenin Pardo, were captured in 2018, then they accepted a pre-agreement with the Attorney General’s Office in exchange for telling or revealing details in the midst of this corruption case that generated rejection in the community.
It is worth mentioning that On November 12, Richard Aguilar was immediately released by an order of the Superior Court of Bogotá that argued expiration of terms.
The ex-governor of Santander regains freedom, after being arrested in July 2021 by the CTI of the Attorney General’s Office. Aguilar Villa had been in a military garrison for several months. He was investigated for alleged irregularities in contracts from 2014 and 2015 when he was governor.
