US to seize $12.5-M of the alleged pork barrel spending from the alleged scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles.
Ms. Napoles is reportedly illegally acquired assets with purported kickbacks from illicit government deals also known as pork barrel scam.
According to the 89-page forfeiture complaint, Ms. Napoles sneaked more than $12 million in Philippine-government pork barrel spending to bank accounts in the U.S. in the names of her family members.
The alleged pork barrel spending was luxuriously well spent by Mr. Napoles “She allegedly used the money to buy, among other things, an expensive high-end condo at the Ritz-Carlton in Los Angeles for a daughter, a Porsche Boxster for another daughter and a motel near Disneyland.”
The complaint filed in the Los Angeles Federal District Court said Napoles paid tens of millions of dollars in bribes to Philippine politicians and officials from 2004-2012 to get $200 million in funds which were supposed to help less fortunate Filipinos.
The Justice Department will not allow the United States to become a playground for the corrupt or a place to hide and invest stolen riches,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell in a statement.
U.S Justice Department’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative forfeiture complaint, is the latest action taken by the U.S.
In 2013, Philippine Daily Inquirer’s exclusive story was published in a series of special reports with detailed allegations about a multi-billion pork barrel spending scam involving Napoles and several high profile politicians.
The reports were based largely on revelations from Luy, who had become a whistleblower along with other former employees of Napoles after the falling-out over their apparently anomalous deals, GMA News report said.
Photo credit: Philstar.com A screenshot from Youtube and Blog of Jeane Napoles, daughter of the alleged mastermind of the pork barrel scam, Janet Napoles.
