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Former Salvadoran President Saca Released After 10-year Sentence
Saca admitted to diverting more than $300 million in public funds during his 2004-2009 presidency.
Former Salvadoran President Elias Antonio Saca was released on Thursday after completing a 10-year prison sentence for embezzlement and money laundering involving more than $300 million in public funds.
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The 61-year-old former president appeared in court to formally register his release after serving his sentence in full, without early-release benefits, his lawyer, Mario Machado, said.
Saca was sentenced in September 2018 to five years for embezzlement and another five for money laundering. Under a plea agreement, he admitted to diverting and laundering more than $300 million during his 2004-2009 administration, avoiding a potential 30-year prison sentence.
He was arrested in 2016 during his son’s wedding. Prosecutors accused him of siphoning money from the state budget for himself and others, including more than $7 million transferred to his former political party, the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA).
¡El ex presidente de El Salvador, Elías Antonio Saca, recupera su libertad tras 10 años en prisión! 🌟 https://t.co/3kuzLOrsGl pic.twitter.com/ML3B51eew2
— Diario La Tribuna (@LaTribunahn) October 30, 2026
Text Reads: Former El Salvador president Elías Antonio Saca regains his freedom after 10 years in prison! 🌟
During the trial, Saca acknowledged exploiting weaknesses in government oversight to transfer public funds to private accounts. He also disclosed that he had issued regulations allowing him to classify information about financial transactions as state secrets, shielding the transfers from scrutiny.
According to his testimony, the money was transferred over the course of his five-year presidency into 13 private bank accounts belonging to his former private secretary, Elmer Charlaix, and two other presidential staff members.
In 2019, Saca was convicted in a separate bribery case after offering $10,000 to a court employee in exchange for information about proceedings against him. A judge ruled that the additional sentence would be incorporated into his existing 10-year term.
He was also ordered to repay $260 million to the state. In another case involving the diversion of funds from Taiwan, he was sentenced to pay an additional $6 million. It remains unclear whether he has fulfilled that obligation.
Saca, a businessman and radio broadcaster who served as president under ARENA, is one of four former Salvadoran presidents to have faced corruption charges. His successor, Mauricio Funes, fled to Nicaragua in September 2016 and died there in 2025.
