Carlos Robles, the Bolivian prosecutor who is overseeing the case of
haredi businessman Jacob Ostreicher, claims that his office is still
waiting for a Swiss government report to determine whether the money
Ostriecher used to fund his rice-growing business is clean. But Ostreicher says the Bolivian government has already had the Swiss report for a week.
Jacob Ostreicher in 2009
Bolivian Prosecutor Still Suspects Haredi Businessman Of Involvement In Laundering Drug Money, Despite Arrests
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The Associated Press reports that Carlos Robles, the Bolivian prosecutor who is overseeing the case of haredi businessman Jacob Ostreicher, claims that his office is still waiting for a Swiss government report to determine whether the money Ostriecher used to fund his rice-growing business is clean.
Ostreicher, who has been imprisoned in La Paz for 18 months without being charged with any crime, is a US citizen. His family lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Bolivian officials suspect Ostreicher’s money, obtained from a Swiss partner, is really laundered drug money and want the Swiss government report before releasing or charging Ostriecher.
Ostreicher denies any involvement with money laundering and drugs.
Over the past two days, seven Bolivian government officials – some of them high ranking and at least one of whom works in the ministry of the county’s presidency – have been arrested in what prosecutors there say was a plot to rob Ostreicher of his rice and extort his family and his business partners by, in effect, holding Ostreicher in a deplorable prison until Ostreicher’s family and partners paid a ransom to have him released.
Ostreicher’s attorney, Yimy Montano, told the AP that the Swiss report Ostreicher’s prosecutor claims to be waiting for actually arrived in La Paz last month, but a high-ranking government official blocked the court from entering it as evidence. Ostriecher told the AP that official is the ringleader of the plot to rob and extort him, and is among those arrested earlier this week.
Actor Sean Penn recently visited Ostreicher to draw attention to the case.
Ostreicher was recently diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and is recovering from the ill effects of a long hunger strike.
Related Posts:
"High-Ranking" Bolivian Government Official Arrested In Plot To Rob And Extort Ostreicher.
Six More Bolivian Government Officials Arrested In Plot Against Haredi Businessman.