Portillo stood up during his four-hour sentencing hearing today in Manhattan federal court, describing to the judge his achievements as president, including a reduction in inflation and improvements in living standards and the banking system. He said U.S. President George W. Bush had commended him when they met at the White House.
“I made a mistake and I also made achievements,” said Portillo, who spoke in Spanish through an interpreter. “Men cannot only be judged by their misdeeds and not only by their achievements.”
U.S. District Judge Robert Patterson said Portillo should be punished because he broke the law as both president-elect and president. His sentence of 70 months was only one month shorter than that sought by federal prosecutors.
“This is a person who was chief executive of a country,” Patterson said in rejecting his request for a 52-month sentence, the period he’s been behind bars awaiting a trial. “This was not a single mistake but was a ‘mistake’ that went on five separate times, over a long period of time.”
The judge also ordered Portillo to forfeit the $2.5 million he earned in the scheme.
“The defendant accepted these checks from the government of Taiwan as part of an agreement to influence the government of which he was the chief executive,” Patterson said.
Inflation, Banking
Portillo, who had about 40 supporters in the courtroom, said he was “profoundly remorseful and embarrassed.”
Portillo accepted illicit payments over several years that he then sent through a U.S. bank, Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Fee told the judge. Fee said Portillo abused the trust placed in him in Guatemala, and he called for a sentence longer than the 52 months Portillo has already spent behind bars, his “time served.”
“Time-served sends a very clear message when the world is watching -- the exactly wrong message,” Fee said. “This defendant, because of the nature of his crimes and the position he held while committing them, is a poor candidate for mercy.”
It’s unclear whether Portillo will serve his sentence in the U.S. or Guatemala, which defense lawyer David Rosenfield said was possible under an extradition agreement. Fee said he was uncertain of the terms of that pact.
The Guatemalan embassy in Washington didn’t immediately return a voicemail message seeking comment on Portillo’s sentencing after business hours today.
The case is U.S. v. Portillo, 09-cr-01142, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at
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