Police investigate Nicaraguan La Prensa newspaper for fraud and money laundering

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Nicaraguan Police informed this Friday that it initiated an investigation against Editorial La Prensa Sociedad Anónima and its directors for the alleged crimes of customs fraud, money laundering, goods, and assets, to the detriment of the State of Nicaragua and the Nicaraguan society.

“In compliance with a court order, a technical team from the Judicial Assistance Directorate, accompanied by officials from the General Directorate of Customs Services (DGA), the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, conducted a search and raid on the warehouses of Editorial La Prensa Sociedad Anónima, which remain under police custody”, said the National Police, in a statement.

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This institution added that it continues “to carry out the pertinent investigative procedures and send the file to the competent authorities for prosecution and determination of criminal responsibilities”.

Minutes earlier, the newspaper La Prensa, the oldest in Nicaragua, denounced that the National Police occupied its facilities, with an unspecified number of journalists inside, and that “they cut internet access, the energy and turned off all the servers inside La Prensa”.

La Prensa, founded in 1926 and part of the Editorial La Prensa group, did not circulate this Friday in its printed version, as reported the day before, because the government, through the General Directorate of Customs Services, keeps its paper withheld.

“Inside the editorial office of La Prensa there are journalists, who were cut off because the police did not allow them access to their electronic media,” said the newspaper, the one with the largest circulation in Nicaragua, which affirmed that the police “are inside” its facilities and have closed the gates so that no one else can enter.

La Prensa reported that at around 12:44 local time (18:44 GMT), “police patrols”, with officers, entered the facilities of La Prensa, and that they did not allow “the collaborators who were in the offices” to use their cell phones.

The newspaper denounced the day before that “the dictatorship”, in reference to the government of Daniel Ortega, in power since 2007, “retains our paper, but cannot hide the truth.”

On March 2, the influential newspaper La Prensa celebrated 95 years since its first publication.

Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since April 2018, which has been accentuated in the face of the general elections of next November 7, in which President Ortega aspires to his fifth presidential term, fourth consecutive, and second together with his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.