Former Puerto Rican legislator found guilty of corruption charges

Former Puerto Rican legislator María Milagros “Tata” Charbonier, who was popular with conservatives and pro-statehood, was convicted on Friday of federal corruption charges.

Charbonier was indicted in August 2020 for conspiracy, money laundering and theft, bribery, and kickbacks involving federally funded programs. She was also charged with obstruction for allegedly trying to destroy data on her phone.

She was accused of running a scheme from 2017 to 2020 in which she inflated her assistant's salary from $800 to $2,900 bi-weekly and kept some of the extra money, which added up to $100,00 total.

She was found guilty of all the charges against her.

Her husband, son, and assistant were also charged in the scheme. The assistant pleaded guilty, and her husband was convicted of similar charges to hers.

Her son entered a pretrial diversion program. Charbonier's lawyer said she would appeal the verdict.