Wire
Guaynabo ex-mayor loses bid to overturn bribery verdict
The federal appeals court rejected Ángel Pérez-Otero’s sufficiency challenge and an indictment claim. His concurrent prison terms of 60 months and 63 months were also affirmed.
The former mayor of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, remains convicted after the First Circuit upheld Ángel Pérez-Otero’s case on May 15, 2026. In federal court in Puerto Rico, a jury had found him guilty after a six-day trial of steering municipal power toward bribery and extortion.
For residents and contractors in Guaynabo, the ruling means the verdict stays in place. The appeals court did not reopen the question of whether the evidence was enough to support the jury’s decision.
Bribes for contracts
The convictions covered conspiracy to commit federal-program bribery, federal-program bribery and/or aiding and abetting, and extortion under color of official right. Trial testimony said illegal payments were made to Pérez-Otero in order to get contracts and benefits from the Municipality of Guaynabo.
That testimony put the dispute in plain terms: money allegedly changed hands to move municipal favors. The appellate ruling leaves that account intact as part of a public-corruption case rooted in local government, not abstraction.
What the ruling leaves in place
The district court imposed concurrent prison terms of 60 months and 63 months. Pérez-Otero had challenged the verdict on sufficiency-of-the-evidence grounds and also raised an alleged indictment defect, but the First Circuit rejected the appeal.