The First Civil Chamber of the First Division of the San Salvador Center convicted former actress Lorena Peña of illicit enrichment; The same decision was made regarding Ana Virginia Guardado Peña, the daughter of a former official.

In Lorena's case, the Chamber found unjust enrichment of $133,746.60, while the daughter was worth $17,016.26, for a total of $150,762.86. This amount must be paid to the state.

“The First Civil Chamber of the First Division of Central San Salvador evaluated the evidence presented by @FGR_SV, which showed that both defendants cannot justify the increase in their assets and the legal origin of the funds. The ruling also prohibits Peña from holding any public office in the next 10 years,” it said. The Public Prosecutor's Office (FGR) reported.

Read also: A hearing has been set against Lorena Peña and her daughter for alleged enrichment

The prosecutor's office accused both of illegally enriching themselves with $277,482.54 in state funds, but they were able to hide $126,719.68, according to their lawyers.

“Peña is accused of irregularities in cash bank deposits, purchasing two properties and credit card payments in the total amount of $140,521.57. While her daughter is being prosecuted for payment discrepancies in cash bank deposits and credit card payments in the amount of $136,960.94,” the District Attorney's Office explained in Tweet, shortly before the verdict was heard.

Former MP's copy

For her part, their lawyer said that the ruling was in their favor to some extent, because the amount of money that the prosecution attributed to them as illicit enrichment had decreased significantly. He announced that they would appeal the ruling.

When Lorena Peña was asked about the ruling, she replied: “It is a political sentence. My daughter is owed payments of $17,000 from the North American institution where she works, and that the same institution sent the supporting documents. In my case, the remaining 133,000 is 120,000 from ten years of Working in the Secretariat of Culture for the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, not the government, and it is the expense account for that secretariat, not my personal account. They did this themselves and say in their accusations, in addition to a plot of land worth 11 thousand dollars that I paid for over 14 years, and they say that I bought it in cash. Even though they have the sales contract and receipts, there is no reference in the accusation to any NGO, nor to embezzlement of public funds, yet they ordered me to “return” this amount and disqualified me for ten years.