When Juan Ramón González Galarza, an attorney with the principal law firm representing the Puerto Rico Public-Private Partnerships Authority (P3A), learned on June 16, 2026, of ERock’s extortion allegations against Power Expectations, he did not disclose them to his other client, Mary C. Zapata Acosta, executive director of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA).
Zapata Acosta later wrote to the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico that she had never been notified about the allegations. The official continued the relationship with Power Expectations, unaware of ERock’s allegations against the company. Enchanted Rock, whose parent company is ERock, and Power Expectations are two of the companies that signed the $5.8 billion contract with PREPA to provide temporary power in Puerto Rico.
So far this four-year term, González & Martínez Law Offices, where González Galarza is a senior partner along with attorney Juan Martínez, has landed $10.4 million in contracts with PREPA and the P3A.
González Galarza did not grant an interview for this investigation but said in brief written statements that the ethical standards and professional obligations governing his profession prevent him from confirming whether, as Zapata said, he failed to notify her about the serious allegations of apparent fraud and extortion that he had received from ERock’s legal representatives since mid-June.
“It is not for me to disclose or publicly discuss communications with my clients, the substance of the advice provided, instructions received, or the deliberations or analyses conducted in the course of legal representation,” the attorney said.
For at least the last 18 months, the Puerto Rico government, through PREPA and P3A, has spent nearly $10.7 million on legal and technical consulting services from González & Martínez Law Offices and Regulatory Compliance Services (ReComS) in an effort to secure temporary power services that remain unavailable to the public amid blackouts and a generation crisis in the electric system, an investigation conducted jointly by the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, Jay Fonseca PR and Bonita Radio found.
ReComS is the company headed by attorney Osvaldo Carlo Linares, which the P3A hired to manage bidding and procurement for the electric power system. It is known as the Independent Third-Party Procurement Office (3PPO, in Spanish).
The investigation by federal agencies into the irregular temporary-power transaction has reached the highest level, several sources confirmed. The sources said even U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche is aware of the matter. Blanche was in Puerto Rico on Thursday, Aug. 27, to announce new federal agency initiatives to combat crimes related to drug trafficking.
La Fortaleza said Power Expectations was not discussed during the meeting between the governor and the attorney general.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico responded with a terse “no comment” when asked whether Blanche’s visit included discussions with the governor or any government agency about the Power Expectations case. Both interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico Héctor Ramírez Carbó and Carlos R. Goris, head of the FBI’s San Juan office, are aware of the case because Carlo Linares copied them on the letter he sent to the Financial Oversight and Management Board on Aug. 18.
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In addition, the FBI has interviewed at least two Puerto Rico government employees, the sources said.
González Galarza, the same attorney who charges $275 an hour to represent PREPA, began providing services to P3A in April 2025 at a rate of up to $350 an hour. His firm, González & Martínez Law Offices, has simultaneously provided services to PREPA and the P3A from April 2025 to the present, except for July 2025 and July 2026 in the case of PREPA.
The attorney first contracted with PREPA in 2012, when Josué Colón Ortiz was the agency’s interim executive director. That first contract was canceled months later, when Juan Alicea Flores took over the agency. His contract with the P3A began in April 2025, also under Colón, who is now the P3A’s executive director and the Energy Czar. His contracts have been renewed at both agencies.
Carlo Linares and González Galarza are office neighbors. The companies they own have offices in the Touchvision Plaza building on López Landrón Street in San Juan. Carlo’s company, ReComS, has its office in the penthouse, while González Galarza’s office is a few floors below, on the seventh floor.
González Galarza said his work as legal counsel, both to PREPA and the P3A, has not posed a conflict. González & Martínez was advising both public corporations as the multibillion-dollar contract awarded to the consortium led by Power Expectations was taking shape, but according to the attorney, “the firm did not provide parallel legal representation or advice to the P3A and PREPA regarding this matter.”
Colón confirmed at a news conference at La Fortaleza that, as the P3A’s executive director, he received advice from González Galarza on this matter.
PREPA’s executive director did not agree to multiple interview requests for this investigation to elaborate on González & Martínez’s role in contracting for temporary generation services. She also did not answer whether she believed the firm was obligated to immediately inform her about the potential fraud involving the ERock contract or whether the attorney’s contracts with PREPA and the P3A could have placed him in a conflict of interest.
The emergency-generation docket before the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau shows that González & Martínez represented PREPA and filed motions specifically concerning this issue.
Under the agreement, the contractor has five days to report any conflict of interest that arises in the course of its advisory work.
The contract with the P3A called for González & Martínez Law Offices to provide services on matters involving energy, generation, transmission and distribution and to handle power purchase agreements and transactions related to PREPA, according to the description in its services proposal. When the contract was signed, the firm disclosed to the P3A that it had an active contract with PREPA.
Who Is González Galarza?
González Galarza is president and a partner at González & Martínez and was the person who accompanied the Energy Czar to an Aug. 9 news conference at La Fortaleza, two days after Jay Fonseca PR made public information showing that the multibillion-dollar contract had serious deficiencies, including the signature of a person fraudulently representing ERock, one of the corporations originally part of the consortium with Power Expectations.
“We immediately referred that to our legal director [Lionel Santa Crispín], who is here with us this morning, and to the main law firm representing the Public Partnerships Authority [González & Martínez], whose principal officer is also here with us this morning.” That was how engineer Colón tried to brush aside reporters’ questions about irregularities involving the signing of the temporary-power contract by the consortium of Enchanted Rock, Power Expectations and Reyes Contractor Group.
González Galarza was part of ex-governor Pedro Pierluisi’s campaign committee for the 2020 election, according to documents from the Office of the Electoral Comptroller.
González & Martínez has obtained $17.1 million in public contracts between 2022 and 2026 with PREPA, the P3A and the municipalities of Cataño, Humacao and Juncos.
González Galarza has donated more than $30,000 to New Progressive Party campaigns since 2015. His most recent contribution was $600 to Gov. Jenniffer González Colón on June 29, 19 days after the contract with the temporary-power consortium was signed. By then, Enchanted Rock had already reported alleged irregularities involving fraud and extortion to the Puerto Rico Public-Private Partnerships Authority.
González Galarza is listed as president of three companies incorporated in August 2025 to provide legal services in the energy field: JG Energy Litigation LLC, JG Energy Management LLC and JG Energy Consulting LLC. The latter company also has the purpose of investing in, acquiring, managing, selling, transferring and disposing of cash, securities, stocks, bonds, investment funds, personal property, partnership interests and any other type of asset or investment.
SAGL L.L.C., Strain Express L.L.C. and JG Litigation Quiros LLC are other companies González Galarza incorporated between 2021 and 2025.
At least two people consulted for this investigation who have experience and connections in the energy industry said they do not know González Galarza as an expert in the field. The attorney did not answer questions about his expertise in energy matters.
González Galarza’s Role in the Multibillion-Dollar Transaction
A review of documents that have been made public, including those in referrals to the Puerto Rico Department of Justice and federal authorities, shows that on June 16 González Galarza, acting as the P3A’s attorney, wrote to Davis Zapffe, ERock’s attorney, regarding a call they had that same morning, during which Zapffe informed González Galarza that his client did not recognize the signature of “Jhoby Weaks” on the contract on ERock’s behalf. In the email exchange, Zapffe warned of possible “criminal conduct.”
“Given the seriousness of the allegations raised, and without expressing any view regarding their accuracy or merits at this stage, I have referred your communication and the information provided to Mr. Osvaldo Carlo, Principal Executive Officer of the Third-Party Procurement Office («3PPO»), the independent entity responsible for administering and overseeing the competitive procurement process at issue,” González Galarza said in his response to Zapffe.
1/6 Letter from ERock’s legal counsel to 3PPO staff, with attorney Juan R. González Galarza copied.
2/6 Letter from ERock’s legal counsel to 3PPO staff, with attorney Juan R. González Galarza copied.
3/6 Letter from ERock’s legal counsel to 3PPO staff, with attorney Juan R. González Galarza copied.
In that communication, González Galarza noted that Carlo Linares “is a former federal prosecutor for the District of Puerto Rico and has extensive experience conducting complex investigations” and said he had asked him “to conduct an independent review of the allegations, evaluate the information available, conduct any additional investigation he deems appropriate and submit a written report” as quickly as possible.
“Please note that this request should not be interpreted as a determination that any violation has occurred. Rather, it reflects our commitment to ensuring that all allegations of potential misconduct are thoroughly reviewed,” González Galarza said in his email exchange with Zapffe, of ERock.
The Duty to Disclose
Puerto Rico’s Rules of Professional Conduct governing attorneys, which were revised as of January this year, establish that a lawyer should not represent a client if there is a significant risk that the representation of one client will be limited by the lawyer’s duties to another current or former client, or by the lawyer’s personal interests.
If González Galarza advised PREPA on the temporary-power contract, he had a duty to inform Zapata about the allegations of possible fraud and extortion that he learned of while providing legal services to the P3A. If, however, his work for PREPA did not cover that contracting process, he had no such ethical responsibility, explained Professor Luis M. Negrón Portillo, an expert in ethics and professional responsibility.
Photo by Brandon Cruz González | Centro de Periodismo Investigativo
Attorney and constitutional law Professor Yanira Reyes Gil explained that, in addition to the Rules of Professional Conduct, an attorney who contracts with the government must also be evaluated under the Code of Ethics for Government Contractors and the Anti-Corruption Code.
“The [scrutiny required] with these conflicts of interest is greater when contracting with the government,” Reyes Gil explained.
“There is a duty to disclose when there is a potential conflict of interest. Without getting into the details, which I do not have, I believe that the attorney, as part of his duty of representation and transparency and his duty to avoid conflicts of interest, had an obligation to fully disclose the potential conflict. There is a prohibition against using confidential information to the detriment of one party and for the benefit of another, especially when we are talking about the public interest,” said the incoming president of the Puerto Rico Bar Association.
The Energy Czar and PREPA Executive Director Keep Out of Sight
On Aug. 21, during a meeting of PREPA’s Governing Board, engineer Zapata Acosta explained that her agency learned of the “internal controversy between Power Expectations and Enchanted Rock” after receiving a request from the television program Los datos son datos.
“We contacted 3PPO directly that same day, and they told us that, yes, they were aware of the matter,” the engineer said during the Governing Board meeting. “Unfortunately, even though they were aware of the matter, apparently since mid-June, they had not told us anything, nor did they tell us anything at the meeting. So we at the Authority only found out that day,” Zapata added, referring to a July 29 meeting in which she participated along with the Energy Czar; P3A staff, including González Galarza; Osvaldo Carlo Linares and his 3PPO team; and executives from Power Expectations, Reyes Contractor Group and Flotek.
Before PREPA’s Governing Board, Zapata blamed the team led by Carlo Linares for her lack of knowledge about the matter but did not mention that her attorney, González Galarza, was the person who directly received ERock’s complaint in mid-June.
On Aug. 21, Colón Ortiz answered 17 questions from the Financial Oversight and Management Board following the public scandal over the transaction and the disclosure of ERock’s letter. Among those answers, the Energy Czar justified excluding Zapata Acosta from the apparent fraud and extortion allegations by saying the P3A had referred the claims to 3PPO because it was the independent entity that had overseen the procurement and had the file.
The Energy Czar said the P3A did not instruct 3PPO to withhold information and keep PREPA out of the matter.
Photo provided
During PREPA’s Governing Board meeting, Zapata Acosta also said she had been unaware of the process to replace Enchanted with Flotek, which began two days after the contract with Power Expectations was signed on June 10. The official said she learned of the substitution on July 10 through a “follow-up” from the Power Expectations team. She said that at the July 29 meeting, PREPA asked 3PPO (ReComS) if it had evaluated Flotek to determine if it recommended the company as a replacement for Enchanted Rock.
Colón, in his response to the Financial Oversight and Management Board, said that “[the] P3A did not make or participate in a decision to withhold the Enchanted Rock allegations from PREPA. The July 30, 2026, recommendation … was prepared and transmitted directly to PREPA by ReComS [Osvaldo Carlo’s company].” He added that “[the] P3A did not prepare that recommendation, did not determine its contents, nor did it direct the omission of information regarding the pending Enchanted Rock investigation. The P3A was copied on the memorandum. Accordingly, the P3A cannot provide the basis for why the July 30 recommendation did not disclose the pending Enchanted Rock investigation.”
The Energy Czar was questioned about the issue during an Aug. 31 appearance at the Capitol, where Rep. Víctor Parés had summoned him for a closed-door discussion of energy matters. Upon arriving, Colón said that neither employees nor consultants from his agency had participated in July 16 meetings with ERock representatives, even though emails between González Galarza and ERock attorney Zapffe are part of the referral Colón himself made to the Puerto Rico Department of Justice.
This translation was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and clarity.
