Miami, Florida – The FBI arrest Saturday, Aug. 31, of Mario Fabrizio Ormachea, the colonel leading Bolivia’s Anti-Corruption Unit, for attempting to extort money from former Aerosur Airlines owner Humberto Roca, [United States District Court, Southern District of Florida, Case 1:13-mj-03250-BLG] works to help vindicate Roca in his ongoing legal battles with the Bolivian government, says his attorney, Michael Diaz, Jr., of the Miami-headquartered global firm Diaz Reus.
According to an FBI affidavit filed in the U.S. District Court criminal complaint charging Ormachea with extortion, he offered to dispose of pending Bolivian charges against Roca for $30,000, and charge someone else. On the following day, after Ormachea was given $5,000 by Roca in previously recorded currency as a down payment, he was arrested near Roca’s Miami Lakes home by FBI surveillance teams.
Diaz says Ormachea had characterized Roca’s prosecution for “illegal enrichment” as a politically motivated scheme hatched by the Bolivian President Evo Morales and Vice President Álvaro García Linera, for which there was no evidence of wrongdoing.
“The FBI quickly moved in and arrested Ormachea after he received the extortion monies from Roca,” said Diaz. “This is continued proof of Roca’s innocence. His business was taken from him for political reasons, forcing Roca and his family to flee his homeland. We will continue fighting to clear his name and recover the losses from the Bolivian government’s illegal expropriation of Roca’s assets.”
Roca was effectively stripped of his Bolivian citizenship after criticizing his government for its culture of corruption, lack of clear rules of law applied equally to all citizens, and its interference in private business, says Diaz. The government subsequently filed criminal charges against him and attempted to expropriate his assets, including his 51 percent controlling interest in Aerosur Airlines.
In December 2011 Roca filed suit in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, Miami Division, [11-cv-24356] against the State of Bolivia, Vice President Álvaro García Linera, and other parties.
Tweet: #FBI arrests #Bolivian anti-corruption head #Ormachea in Miami. @michaeldiazjr : this vindicates our client Humberto Roca.
