Federal authorities are investigating Senator Héctor Joaquín Sánchez Álvarez over allegations that he solicited bribes from contractors while working at the Department of Education (DE). This pattern reportedly continued while he served as an electoral commissioner and worked on the campaign of former Governor Pedro Pierluisi, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

Elected under the New Progressive Party (PNP, in Spanish), Sánchez Álvarez is only three months into his term as a Senate representative for the Carolina district, yet he brings extensive experience in partisan politics. For over a decade, he has intermittently worked on electoral campaigns for the PNP and held trusted positions within the Department of Education, eventually consolidating his power as the agency’s deputy secretary from January 2021 to May 2022.

Pierluisi’s administration continued to back Sánchez Álvarez, even after he stepped down from the Department of Education amid corruption scandals. The former governor also supported his Senate bid with donations from his campaign committee to Sánchez Álvarez’s committee for the Carolina district.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Education launched a criminal investigation five years ago. The probe followed allegations that Sánchez Álvarez used his position to improperly steer funds, contracts, and bids, as confirmed by the investigation conducted by the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) and 9 Millones. During this period, allegations of electoral crimes also surfaced.

Lymarie Llovet, spokesperson for the federal prosecutor’s office in Puerto Rico, stated in writing, “In accordance with Department of Justice policy, we cannot comment on or discuss matters related to the status of any ongoing investigation, nor confirm or deny the existence of such an investigation.”

Sánchez Álvarez expressed surprise when approached by the CPI and 9 Millones in his Capitol office. He questioned how confidential information was accessed and added that he was confident no investigation into public fund misappropriation involved him.

In written statements sent later, he emphasized, “No one has notified or summoned me regarding any federal investigation. In fact, the allegations are so absurd or implausible that no one, federal or local authorities, would believe them.”

Upon investigating the former deputy secretary of Education’s conduct, federal authorities found actions that could constitute white-collar crimes, including alleged fraud, solicitation of bribes, and money laundering in the campaign financing of former Governor Pierluisi and the Senator himself.

The alleged scheme involves two companies with a long history as technology and construction service providers for the government. Innovative Solutions Inc. (INSOL) has had $51.7 million in technology and administrative consulting contracts with the DE over 17 years, according to the Office of the Comptroller’s contract registry. The DE contracted INSOL “to demonstrate federal compliance” with U.S. government academic and administrative requirements, as indicated in the contracts.

INSOL’s physical address is 151 Federico Acosta Street, practically in front of the DE’s central office at 150 of the same street. Former PNP electoral commissioner Edwin Mundo lobbies the agency to secure or defend the company’s contracts, the CPI and 9 Millones confirmed through two sources who have seen him attending meetings with the company or lobbying the agency. Mundo responded via text message that he does not lobby but advises on government matters. He also denied being a direct advisor to INSOL, stating instead that he works “for a firm that does work for them.”

Meanwhile, AKA Electrical Engineering & Contractors is a construction company from Naguabo that has primarily been contracted by the Office for the Improvement of Public Schools (OMEP, in Spanish) since 1998, according to the OCPR. It has also had dozens of contracts with the Infrastructure Financing Authority (AFI, in Spanish) for school construction and repair, and with the DE.

In written statements, INSOL Vice President Julio César Muñoz Ayala countered that “the information associating Innovative Solutions with any investigation, contract negotiation, bribery act, or cooperation is absolutely FALSE.” He added that they have worked for the government with excellence and integrity for 20 years.

At the time of publication, AKA Electrical Engineering & Contractors had not responded to requests for comment by phone or email.

The alleged fraudulent payments began in 2017 when Sánchez Álvarez held the position of deputy secretary of Occupational and Technical Education under the leadership of former secretary and convict Julia Keleher.

Since that period, Sánchez Álvarez allegedly solicited bribes totaling over $50,000 from officials of INSOL and AKA Electrical & Engineering Contractors, Muñoz Ayala and Luis Fidel Robinson Meléndez, respectively, in separate meetings, according to a source who affirmed this under oath.

“At no time have I received a request for a bribe or any other illegal action from Department of Education officials,” Muñoz Ayala emphasized. He stated that their contracts with the DE date back decades before Sánchez Álvarez assumed any managerial position, and during his tenure, contracts originated from the Office of Federal Affairs under different directors, all authorized by the Secretaries of Education, not the division he led. “Mr. Sánchez has had no involvement in the contractual aspect of our services,” he claimed.

Robinson Meléndez was unavailable for comments, despite leaving a message with his company’s administrative assistant and sending him an email.

Sánchez Álvarez allegedly raised tens of thousands of dollars for the then-gubernatorial candidate’s campaign, purportedly paid in exchange for public contracts, according to sources consulted by the CPI and 9 Millones.

In legally reported donations to the Electoral Comptroller’s Office (OCE, in Spanish), there are $1,000 that Muñoz Ayala contributed to Pierluisi’s committee in February 2020 and $1,500 in April 2022 for Pierluisi’s fundraising birthday event held that month at the Sheraton Hotel in the Convention District in San Juan. Robinson Meléndez also purchased tickets for that event and donated $1,500, which, according to the income and expense report, was one of the highest contributions since other people’s donations ranged from $100 to $2,800.

Before that celebration, in June 2020, Ignacio J. Rivera Martínez, an INSOL executive, donated $2,800 to Pierluisi’s committee.

Meanwhile, in September 2020, individual donations of $2,800 each in cash were recorded from Robinson Meléndez, his wife, Nancy Santana Nazario, and their son Alexander Robinson Santana, who is listed as president of AKA Electrical. Two months later, a $2,800 donation was recorded from the company’s vice president, Vidal Santana Nazario. In December 2021, Nancy Santana Nazario donated another $1,750. The reported donations from AKA Electrical Engineering & Contractors executives to Pierluisi’s Committee total $14,450 between 2020 and 2022.

Alleged conspiracy to delay the purchase of the generators

After the State Elections Commission (CEE, in Spanish) attributed the 2020 election victory to Pierluisi, Sánchez Álvarez wasted no time in seeking control over DE contracts, El Nuevo Día reported. The period of just over two weeks, during which he proclaimed himself deputy secretary of Education without being appointed by then-nominated secretary Elba Aponte Santos, appears to have been decisive for the criminal investigation. Sánchez Álvarez assumed duties at the agency while his contract as PNP electoral commissioner was still in effect. The OIG received the third complaint against him at that time.

The first complaint was filed in 2019 when allegations were received that Sánchez Álvarez had involved PNP legislators in the distribution of funds for a program providing work experience to students with functional diversity. Then, in 2020, another complaint was received about alleged pressures from Sánchez Álvarez to amend contracts in favor of INSOL. Finally, in 2021, there was yet another complaint about his efforts to allegedly annul a bid and favor Bella Sofía Contractors, a company with an office in Bayamón, according to the corporate registry, which has provided the DE with construction and school repair services before.

According to this last complaint, Sánchez Álvarez allegedly tried to influence the purchase of generators for 231 public schools with funds from the federal Immediate Aid to Restart Operations Program (Restart).

One source familiar with the investigation described the senator as “a corruption network with tentacles everywhere.”

These investigations originated from complaints by DE employees themselves.

“It’s the Department itself and even the PNP members who are fed up with this happening; that there are still people who dare to do this,” emphasized another source with knowledge.

Secretary of Education Eliezer Ramos Parés responded to CPI and 9 Millones in written statements, saying, “As we have expressed on other occasions, the Department of Education fully and diligently collaborates with all investigations that require information or documentation related to our operations.” However, he avoided directly addressing the specific allegations.

When asked if he believes there have been advances in corruption prevention structures since the era of Víctor Fajardo (1994-2000), he added that financial information systems have been implemented since then to monitor transactions, as well as a rapid alert system that checks that funds are used according to established objectives. In an effort to defend the institution, he added that “some reports of possible misconduct have been filed by our own employees, which reflects the awareness and internal commitment that prevail within the agency.”

The generator supply was awarded through a formal bid to two companies in September 2020. Former DE Secretary Eligio Hernández Pérez had awarded the bid processes in favor of Master Link Corporation to install generators in the educational regions of Arecibo, Bayamón, and Caguas, while Wide Range Corporation would supply and install generators in the regions of San Juan, Humacao, Mayagüez, and Ponce.

When the DE administration changed in January 2021, Sánchez Álvarez allegedly requested the cancellation of the bid award to favor Bella Sofía Contractors. It is alleged that the still PNP electoral commissioner convened trusted individuals within the DE to form a new evaluation committee and annul the previous bid. However, the effort was thwarted, and the complaint of this attempt at undue influence reached the then-designated secretary, Aponte Santos.

Carlos Morales Vázquez, owner of Master Link Corporation, recalled the presence of the competing company at the bid meetings. “It was a company they liked, but it didn’t have the capacity. On the day of the meeting, an OMEP employee tried to remove the bid bond requirement. They wanted that because that company [Bella Sofía Contractors] expressed at the meeting that they wanted the bid bond requirement removed. We left that meeting upset,” he confirmed. According to documents of the bid award, Bella Sofía did not include the required bid bond. Master Link and Wide Range’s contracts expired in August 2024, without even a quarter of the generators being installed, Morales Vázquez assured. He told CPI and 9 Millones that they would sue the DE for economic damages due to the alleged obstruction they faced from OMEP.

Before its first contract with OMEP, the company was called Bella Sofia Air Conditioner Inc., but its owner, Alexander Pérez Rivera, changed the name in February 2021, according to the corporate resolution. It was during that four-year period that it began obtaining contracts with OMEP, totaling $3,395,369, and with the DE for $14,679,696, according to the Office of the Comptroller. Previously, it had only been contracted by AFI, the Land Administration, and the Bayamón and Cataño municipalities.

The company is also among the top 10 suppliers from whom the agency purchases services: in fiscal year 2024, the DE paid it $4 million, according to a General Services Administration website. However, the DE has not publicly disclosed purchase orders from previous years, so it was not possible to know the total public funds awarded to it at the time of this edition’s closure.

At press time, Pérez Rivera did not send the statements the CPI requested.

A Career Marked by Influences in the PNP

Sánchez Álvarez’s rise from gardening teacher to deputy secretary in 2017 came on the recommendation of then-Senate Appointments Committee Chairman and former Yauco mayor, Abel Nazario Lugo, according to a source. At the time of that appointment, Sánchez Álvarez had worked training electoral officials as the PNP’s Chief Instructor. Nazario Lugo resigned from his Senate seat in March 2020 while facing charges — of which he was convicted — for defrauding the federal government and soliciting bribes with public funds.

Sánchez Álvarez’s tenure as deputy secretary lasted only two years. However, he continued working at the agency until — in February 2020 — he returned to the CEE as Pierluisi’s electoral representative in the PNP primaries, where he faced then governor Wanda Vázquez Garced for the gubernatorial candidacy. When Pierluisi secured the PNP’s top candidacy, Sánchez Álvarez became the party’s Electoral Commissioner.

What followed the 2020 elections was a chapter of unwavering loyalty from the Pierluisi administration, which repeatedly supported Sánchez Álvarez when he was embroiled in corruption scandals that could damage his public image.

“He has always enjoyed my trust both as our party’s Electoral Commissioner and in the Department of Education,” Pierluisi stated about Sánchez Álvarez’s departure from the DE amid allegations that he had interfered in the Teacher of the Year award. “I understand there were allegations, which were refuted, and there was no legal referral,” he reiterated in July 2022 when questioned about Sánchez Álvarez’s recruitment at that time as deputy secretary of the Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTOP, in Spanish).

He left the DTOP in December 2022 after an agency employee recorded him counting money raised in political donations for Governor Pierluisi during working hours.

In 2023, after the CPI published that Sánchez Álvarez had an administrative consulting contract with the Land Authority through Advisors Consulting, LLC, Pierluisi again defended him, stating there was “nothing irregular about that matter in the slightest. He is on unpaid leave [in Education], which is granted in the government, practically by all agencies.”

“Stop looking for controversy where there is none. He is a government contractor, has a political ideology, and there is nothing irregular about that,” the then-Governor told reporters.

These repeated defenses led DE public employees to perceive Sánchez Álvarez as untouchable, even to the point where many questioned why he enjoyed such impunity.

“Everyone [in the DE] knows that Pedro Pierluisi’s defense was because they owed him favors, and that he [Sánchez Álvarez] could bring down Pedro Pierluisi’s government,” commented a source who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.

“The relationship he had with La Fortaleza [official residence and workplace of the governor] was very close and hermetic. There was a kind of [interest in] keeping him happy… He felt completely immune in Fortaleza,” validated a second DE source about the impression employees had, including those from the same party.

Pierluisi did not respond to a request for comment, which was sent to him through his press spokesperson.

Potential Electoral Crimes

Federal authorities have also examined allegations that Sánchez Álvarez may have committed electoral crimes, including — but not limited to — ballot forgery, according to documents reviewed by the CPI and 9 Millones. In 2021, the FBI submitted an information request to the administration of the Parque de las Fuentes Condominium in Hato Rey, a San Juan neighborhood, requesting security camera footage after receiving allegations pointing to Sánchez Álvarez and others entering and exiting the apartment he rented in that condominium, carrying boxes full of ballots in the early morning hours. These alleged moves occurred when the CEE was amid the general election scrutiny of 2020, where Pierluisi faced four other gubernatorial candidates.

The building where Sánchez Álvarez stayed is located 1.6 miles from the Roberto Clemente Coliseum, where the provisional absentee and early voting ballot vault was located due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sánchez Álvarez declined to make additional comments regarding these allegations, which he called “absurd.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) noted the few controls in place at the Coliseum. “We were struck by the lack of security of the supposed vault. The wire fence was not placed from floor to ceiling. Anyone could access it from the top. Additionally, at the bottom, there were several places with large openings that allowed easy access for people to enter and exit the vault,” the entity observed in a report published in July 2021.

“Although it had two doors that were supposed to be closed with chains with five locks… in practice, anyone could access this space by simply lying on the floor and pushing themselves into it [the vault] through any of the gaps created when it was set up,” it added.

A week after the 2020 general elections, nearly 200 boxes with uncounted ballots turned up, an incident that made international news. The then-CEE president, Francisco Rosado Colomer, attributed this incident to disorganization and the fatigue of electoral workers, according to press reports.

The 2020 election results in Puerto Rico were highly contested, even resulting in six court challenges and one in the House of Representatives. These elections were governed by the controversial Electoral Code, which was approved that same year. They were also characterized by the relaxation of mail-in voting, which resulted in a massive amount of that voting modality that the CEE structure was not equipped to handle.

When asked about how changes in administration influence criminal prosecutions, Llovet — the federal prosecutor’s office spokesperson — said that “as a matter of policy, the office does not comment on or discuss internal administrative or deliberative processes it may have with the Department of Justice, including discussions with headquarters in Washington D.C. or changes in administration priorities or policies.”

Politicians, Contractors, and Farmers Among His Donors

Sánchez Álvarez’s committee for his candidacy as senator for Carolina was organized in March 2023 in Canóvanas, according to OCE data. His treasurer is Natallie Virella Irene, who performed the same function for the PNP in 2020.

The Pedro Pierluisi Inc. Committee donated $3,100 to the Friends of Héctor Joaquín Sánchez Committee, which is the maximum that can be donated to a campaign and was the second most important donor to the now senator for the Carolina district.

That donation was surpassed only by Sánchez Álvarez himself, who donated a total of $5,113 to his own campaign throughout various years, according to OCE income and expense reports.

Andrés Guillemard Noble, Pierluisi’s brother-in-law, also donated $2,000 to Sánchez Álvarez’s campaign. The third-largest donor was Anthony Maceira Zayas with $3,000. The former Public Affairs Secretary of former Governor Ricardo Rosselló now has lucrative consulting contracts with several agencies and with Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz.

Between 2023 and 2024, Sánchez Álvarez’s Committee reported income of over $82,000.

Among the list of donors are construction and school repair contractors from the DE, OMEP, and AFI. As well as companies linked to technology in the DE and other government agencies.

Among these donors are two of INSOL’s top executives, Julio César Muñoz Ayala and Ignacio J. Rivera Martínez. Each contributed $1,500. Luis Fidel Robinson Meléndez, the original owner of AKA Electrical, now represented by his son Alexander Robinson, also gave $1,300.

Among the donors are also several farmers linked to agricultural markets sponsored by the Department of Agriculture, and some sell products to school cafeterias. Four farmers have been favored with loans and incentives from the Agricultural Development Innovation Fund (FIDA, in Spanish), the Agricultural Enterprises Development Administration, and the Department of Agriculture (ADEA, in Spanish).

In the income and expense report submitted to the OCE, there is a record of a $500 check from Finca La Hermosa Inc. as a donation to the Camino al Triunfo event held in March 2024 at the Camarero Racetrack. Corporate donations to campaign committees are prohibited by law, so the Committee had to return the donation in May of that same year.

The owner of Finca La Hermosa Inc. is Julio César Hernández López, who also owns J.A. Cleaners Services L.L.C. and personally donated another $750 for the “Hawaiian Blue Party” event held in July 2024 in Loíza. Finca La Hermosa Inc. has received emergency loans from FIDA and funds for farm improvements from ADEA. Meanwhile, J.A. Cleaners Services also provided public school maintenance services in Moca, Añasco, and San Sebastián through an agreement with OMEP for routine maintenance of public schools.

High-level officials from the School Food Authority, such as director Franchesca Reyes Benítez, and from the Department of Agriculture, such as Wilbert Vélez Rodríguez, who served as deputy administrator of the Agricultural Enterprises Development Administration in the previous four-year term, are also among the donors with $625 and $500, respectively.

Among the donors are officials or former officials from the DE and Vocational Rehabilitation agency. There are also former government officials like Christian Sobrino, who donated $250 for Camino al Triunfo, one of the four events held by the candidate.

The fundraising events were: “Hawaiian Blue Party” held in July 2024 in a residential communal area in Loíza, where $4,525 was raised; “Wine and Cheese with Héctor Joaquín Sánchez”, held in September 2024 at the Mar del Caribe Restaurant in San Juan, with $9,750 raised; 2024 Camino al Triunfo, held in March 2024 at the Winners Convention Center at the Camarero Racetrack, where $9,350 was raised; and Arrancando con Héctor Joaquín Sánchez, at Hacienda Campo Rico, where nearly $28,000 was collected in April 2023.

Journalist Wilma Maldonado Arrigoitía contributed to this story.

This translation was generated with the assistance of AI and thoroughly reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and clarity.