A cluster of officials in the Bolivian Ministries of Government and the Presidency and prosecutor's offices are alleged to have constituted an extortion ring that demanded cash from individuals facing prosecution, including American investor Jacob Ostreicher.
Its central figures are allegedly Fernando Rivera Tardío and Dennis Efraín Rodas, both lawyers for the Bolivian Minister of Government; Boris Villegas Rocabado, former Director of the Interior Regime another division of the Ministry of Government; and Jose Manuel Antezana Pinaya, an official in the Ministry of the Presidency.
[1] Members of the network approached indicted, and usually imprisoned persons, offering to resolve their cases in exchange for payments from $5,000 to $100,000.
[2] The Associated Press has described the affair as "the biggest scandal to face the country's judicial system.
[2] Twelve people including prosecutors, government officials, and the judge who originally had Jacob Ostreicher imprisoned have been arrested in what authorities say was an extortion ring.