In August 2021, just a month after leaving the Ministry of Agriculture, Pablo Salvador Anliker received notification from the Court of Accounts regarding his inability to justify or provide documentation for $133 million dollars in purchases made under the Public Health Emergency Program (PES). This program, created by the administration of President Nayib Bukele, aimed to deliver food to vulnerable households during the pandemic. The Seventh Chamber of First Instance of the Court of Accounts initiated a financial accountability trial based on an audit that flagged multimillion-dollar payments for products and services without evidence of receipt.
The Ministry of Agriculture made these purchases between March and May 2020. However, almost a year and a half later, neither Anliker nor a dozen Agriculture Ministry employees named in the notification had managed to dispel the irregularities identified by the audit.
The Court of Accounts monitors the use of public funds in three phases: audit, accountability trial, and appeal. The audit phase, which can last up to five years, involves a thorough review of how public resources were utilized. If irregularities are identified, they are classified as audit findings and can proceed to a trial conducted by a Chamber of First Instance. This chamber determines whether the findings result in administrative sanctions (fines) or patrimonial reparations (requiring officials or employees to reimburse the state for damages).
Once a trial begins, a “statement of objections” is issued, essentially a formal complaint against the officials, who are then allowed to present their defense. This trial phase must be completed within two years, after which the state forfeits the right to recover the funds. A conclusive ruling, whether acquittal or conviction, must be issued within this timeframe. Following the trial, appeals can be filed, with the Second Instance Chamber —including two magistrates and the Court of Accounts president— having the final say.
Documents obtained by El Faro reveal details of the accountability trial against Anliker and a dozen Ministry of Agriculture employees. These include payments for products never delivered, such as the overpaying and underdelivering of milk to El Salvador, from an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands, creating a financial hole of $7 million — a transaction included in the $133 million flagged in the proceedings.
While the trial began in August 2021, the audit report underpinning the accusations dates back to February 2021. By then, the Attorney General’s Office had already incorporated Anliker and at least eight companies mentioned in the Court of Accounts’ case into its broader investigation, known as “Operation Cathedral,” overseen by the now-defunct Special Anti-Mafia Group.
Attempts by El Faro to secure interviews with the judges handling the case have been unsuccessful. In July 2024, the outlet sought comments ahead of the publication of the investigation into the multimillion-dollar payments for milk to the British Virgin Islands offshore company. Despite repeated follow-ups, including a request made in November, neither the Court of Accounts judges nor the Communications Directorate of the Comptroller’s Office responded.
Half the Budget in Question
The allegations in the accountability trial point to suspicions touching 51 percent of the PES’s total budget of $258 million, managed by the Ministry of Agriculture under Anliker’s tenure. Due to these irregularities, Anliker, the head of Agriculture's procurement department Lorenzo Adalberto Corpeño Figueroa, and a dozen employees were summoned by the Court of Accounts to present their legal defense.
“The involved officials are hereby summoned to respond to the administrative and patrimonial responsibilities attributed to them,” states the 38-page Statement of Objections issued by the Seventh Chamber of First Instance, a document obtained by El Faro.
The document, dated Aug. 11, 2021, initiated the trial and demanded that Anliker and his subordinates provide information on the public funds spent under the PES program. Failure to do so could result in a ruling requiring them to reimburse the state $133 million.
In August 2021, when the trial began, the Court of Accounts referred the case to the Attorney General’s Office, citing evidence of embezzlement: a criminal offense punishable by fines, one to three years in prison, and disqualification from public office if it’s proven that the official personally benefited or facilitated benefits for others. This type of crime falls outside the investigative authority of the Court of Accounts. “It is determined to notify the Attorney General of the Republic,” the statement of objections reads. At that time, it had been three months since President Nayib Bukele used his legislative majority to appoint Rodolfo Delgado as Attorney General, who has shown unwavering loyalty to the president.
On November 18 and 19, El Faro requested information from the Attorney General’s Office about the status of the file sent by the Court of Accounts but received no response. Since Delgado's appointment in May 2021, the office has refused to answer any of the outlet’s inquiries over three years. One of Delgado's first acts was dismantling the Anti-Mafia Special Group, which had been investigating government activities. Most of the prosecutors from this unit are now in exile.
Anliker’s Role and International Sanctions
Anliker served as Minister of Agriculture from June 1, 2019, until he resigned on Apr. 7, 2021, and was demoted to Deputy Minister of Agriculture, a position that also granted him immunity. He left the post not two months later, on May 31, 2021, without offering explanations. On July 1, 2021, the U.S. government sanctioned him for “corruption and misappropriating public funds for personal gain,” citing its “Section 353” anti-corruption sanctions also known as the “Engel List”.
A friend of Bukele, Anliker co-founded the Nuevas Ideas party and built his business empire with multimillion-dollar loans from Alba Petróleos, a company founded with capital from the Venezuelan regime. He now frequently posts videos on social media, discussing politics, recounting anecdotes about his farm, or reminiscing about his time at the elite, bilingual American School.
His Court of Accounts trial was set to begin on Feb. 23, 2021, following the audit’s conclusions, but it didn’t start until Aug. 11, 2021. Anliker, Corpeño, and nine Ministry of Agriculture employees were notified of the objections. The Court had 18 months to issue a ruling.
By August 2024, two sources from the judiciary, who spoke with El Faro on condition of anonymity for fear of arrest— said that the trial had expired in the Seventh Chamber of First Instance. Judges Guillermo Suncín and Napoleón Domínguez declined interview requests about the case’s status. A third source indicated that by 2022, there was a draft ruling, but delays allowed the defense to file for case dismissal due to expiration. The lack of response from the Court of Accounts leaves it unclear whether Anliker presented evidence to defend himself or if the trial lapsed without resolving the allegations.
Once the two-year deadline established by the Court of Accounts Law passes, the case expires, and the court loses its authority to recover public funds. However, the Attorney General’s Office can still investigate. In June 2023, Bukele announced a “war on corruption,” but most cases targeted political opponents or low-ranking officials from Nuevas Ideas, such as a former mayor and an ex-legislator.
$133-Million-Dollar Discrepancy
The $133 million in questioned funds stems from three major objections detailed during the trial: The first objection involves payments to Aroum Group, Marhel Group, and Tdx Trading for unaccounted products, totaling $20 million. Another $2.5 million was paid to the Panamanian shell company Nice Moon S.A. for assembling food baskets — a task in fact performed by military volunteers. The largest objection, amounting to $110 million, pertains to 43 procurement processes where the Court found no evidence that the goods or services were received.
The trial documents confirm El Faro’s August 2024 investigation regarding a $27 million payment to Aroum Group Inc. for powdered milk, of which $7 million dollars’ worth never entered El Salvador, according to customs records.
The documents also highlight Marhel Group, a Mexican company from Mazatlán, Sinaloa, awarded a $30 million contract. $18.8 million was paid, yet $12 million remained unaccounted for. Auditors verified that $5.1 million-worth of canned tuna and shredded chicken did not reach El Salvador, as confirmed by customs data. In 2022, Marhel faced scrutiny in Mexico for receiving $2.9 million in government contracts despite its parent company, B-Eminent, being labeled a “phantom company” by Mexico’s Tax Administration Service in June 2020, as Revista Factum revealed in 2020.
The Ministry of Agriculture also lacked proper documentation for macaroni packages purchased from the Brazilian company Tdx Trading, leaving $1.3 million unaccounted for.
Additionally, the ministry authorized a fictitious service payment to Nice Moon S.A. The $2.5 million contract supposedly covered food basket assembly, yet judges determined that volunteers and military personnel performed the work. “Reports from the company confirm the use of volunteers and Armed Forces personnel for logistics and assembly,” the Seventh Chamber noted in its findings. The objection named Anliker, Corpeño, other employees, and contract administrator Kevin Ernesto Doñán as responsible parties.
11% of Purchases Accounted For
The trial file reveals a systemic pattern of administrative failures that caused significant losses for the Ministry of Agriculture (MAG). Among the most glaring issues is the lack of documentation proving that the ministry received the goods it paid for, as outlined in the seventh objection. “There is no evidence that the supplies and services for assembling the solidarity baskets were received,” states the court, which details the unaccounted amounts across 43 procurement processes in a table.
Agriculture did not respond to El Faro’s interview request on Nov. 18, 2024. Nor did Presidential Communications Secretary Sofía Medina or Presidential Press Secretary Ernesto Sanabria, both of whom were also asked for comment.
The court file, reviewed by El Faro, highlights that using Fopromid emergency funds, the MAG paid $123 million across 43 procurement files for goods and services. However, the ministry could only provide evidence of delivery for $13 million worth of goods — just 11 percent of the total purchases. The report specifies that MAG employees failed to ensure “the reception of the acquired goods prior to making payments to the suppliers.”
The court document places responsibility for these administrative failures on several individuals, including former Minister Pablo Salvador Anliker and key officials: Lorenzo Corpeño, Élmer Amaya Quintanilla, Luis Miguel Segovia, Carlos Jesús Argueta, Ezequiel Urías Aguilar, Amílcar Landaverde Lemus, and Teresa Elizabeth Uribe Hernández.
Venezuelan Businessmen
The Court of Accounts confirmed three anomalies in two contracts totaling $5.1 million with the Panamanian company, Nice Moon S.A., hired to package food for government distribution. In the procurement orders labeled CD-033/2020-MAG, the company was listed as “Nice Moon Logistic,” but former Minister Pablo Anliker referred to it as “Nice Moon S.A.” when questioned by a legislative committee about the credentials of suppliers contracted for food packaging in 2020. During the trial, payment records identified Nice Moon S.A. as the recipient.
While Nice Moon S.A. received nearly half of the agreed payment —$2.55 million— the Court of Accounts argued that the payment should never have been made. The court stated there was no “real necessity” to contract the service, as the company did not use its own labor force but instead relied on “volunteer personnel and Armed Forces personnel of El Salvador for the logistics and preparation of the solidarity baskets,” according to reports submitted to the Court of Accounts during its audit.
Additionally, the two officials managing the contract failed to account for the purported services received. Other anomalies included the Ministry of Agriculture’s failure to conduct a prior market survey and to verify Nice Moon S.A.'s qualifications. The company’s financial profile showed operational losses, further calling its suitability into question.
For these reasons, the Court of Accounts demanded seven MAG officials repay $2.55 million linked to Nice Moon’s contracts.
When the MAG contracted Nice Moon, the company was led by Venezuelan brothers Javier and Rommel Bogarín Rangel, as per the Panamanian corporate registry. Both left their directorial roles on Sep. 26, 2020, four and five months after securing contracts in El Salvador.
Nice Moon S.A., founded in 2005, exhibited characteristics typical of shell companies: Its founders and initial directors were linked to hundreds of other Panamanian companies. On Jan. 22, 2020 —three months before Agriculture awarded its first contract to Nice Moon— the Bogarín Rangel brothers were listed as the company’s new directors. Javier became secretary, while Rommel became treasurer.
Under their leadership, MAG signed two contracts with Nice Moon: one on Apr. 24, 2020, for $2.55 million, and another on May 25, 2020, for the same amount. According to records obtained through the Guacamaya Leaks, Rommel visited El Salvador during a two-day trip in February 2020, weeks before the contracts were signed.
Troubling Track Record
The Bogarín Rangel brothers were already under scrutiny for questionable business dealings. In March 2020, just one month before securing their first Salvadoran contract, they signed a $2.3 million deal with the Panamanian government to supply ventilators. However, an investigation by La Prensa de Panamá revealed that some of the ventilators delivered were non-functional, exposing the deal as fraudulent. Their company, Primo Medical Group, was not even authorized to distribute ventilators.
The brothers’ controversial dealings extended to their family. Their aunt and uncle, Isabel and Daniel Rangel Baron, operated Continental Medica, the sole Venezuelan distributor of the brand of ventilators involved in the Panama scam, as Armando.info revealed. Between 2004 and 2012, Continental Medica received $455 million in no-bid contracts from Venezuela’s Social Security Institute, as reported by Runrun.es. The family ties weren’t just personal; by 2015, Roberto and Rommel Bogarín Rangel were listed as business partners with their aunt Isabel in a private Panamanian foundation called Alastor, according to Armando.info. The family businesses had previously operated in the automotive sector.
On Jan. 23, 2020, just one day after becoming directors of Nice Moon, Roberto and Rommel Bogarín Rangel resigned from another company involved in a scandalous $168 million contract with Panama’s Social Security Institute. While the Bogarín Rangel brothers were not directly implicated in that contract, their business partners from the consortium involved were linked to Mexican company Intercontinental de Medicamentos S.A. de C.V. This company was accused of tax fraud, quality control failures, and contract violations, ultimately leading to its suspension by the Mexican government in April 2021.
By then, the faulty ventilators supplied in Panama had been public knowledge for over a month. In El Salvador, the Court of Accounts audit had already identified irregularities in the payments to Nice Moon, and preparations were underway for the trial that would begin four months later.
Unqualified Suppliers
Another key objection raised by the Court of Accounts involves $6.45 million paid by the Ministry of Agriculture (MAG) to suppliers who were deemed unfit to provide the contracted services. The suppliers included individuals or small businesses with no experience in food-related services or limited financial solvency, increasing the risk of overpriced purchases and contract non-compliance, according to the court.
The Court of Accounts identified four unqualified suppliers. The first, Castillo Guevara y Asociados, is an accounting firm owned by Carlos Roberto Castillo Guevara, a trusted associate of Legislative Assembly President Ernesto Castro, who has long benefited from contracts awarded by both government and municipal administrations led by Nayib Bukele. He was also under investigation in “Operation Catedral”.
In April 2023, El Faro revealed that the listed address of Castillo Guevara’s firm —Pinares de Suiza, Polígono 13, No. 22, Santa Tecla— was a private residence with no signage and no response to inquiries. His actual office was located at another address in Colonia Jardines de la Libertad, which is also the registered location for two companies owned by Ernesto Castro: Casol and Grupo Tres y Punto.
The second unqualified supplier is Adela López, the sister-in-law of Jorge “Koky” Aguilar, a Bukele administration official removed from his position in June 2020, was also flagged. Aguilar’s dismissal occurred after it was discovered that a company he founded and directed, later managed by his daughter, had sold plastic face shields to the government for $250,000.
López owned Trade Winds, a retail company that sold $841,500 in food baskets to the government. She also served as the company’s director. In 2020, El Faro reported that Trade Winds had never exceeded $127,000 in annual sales in previous years.
The third, Manuel Tobar, operator of a shoe store in downtown San Salvador, was contracted by the MAG for $2.5 million. The Court of Accounts found that Tobar had failed to meet basic requirements, such as filing financial statements with the Commercial Registry for two years prior to the contract.
The fourth, Carmen Yolanda Menéndez, who used her business “La Granjita,” was awarded $2.48 million in contracts for food baskets. While La Granjita specialized in selling meats and dairy products, the Court of Accounts discovered that $1.7 million in food from these contracts had no proof of delivery. Only $432,000 worth of baskets were documented as received.
Further investigation revealed that Menéndez lacked a commercial license and had not registered her financial statements for 2018 or 2019. Prosecutors had opened an investigation, too, and found that her business lacked the financial capacity to fulfill a multimillion-dollar contract. Bank transactions from Dec. 31, 2019, to May 28, 2020, did not exceed $750 each. On May 14, 2020, when she signed the contract with MAG, her total bank balance was $2,800.
