SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco used his mother to give money to the mother of a minor who he was accused of abusing in an effort to hide the funds, according to documents that prosecutors presented to a judge this week and viewed by The Associated Press.
Franco has been charged with sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl in the Dominican Republic. Prosecutors filed multiple charges against Franco six months after a judge ordered that he be investigated in connection with sexual and psychological abuse of the girl.
The indictment also includes the girl’s mother. According to prosecutors, Franco paid the girl’s mother thousands of dollars to consent to the abuse, which lasted four months. The girl’s mother remains under house arrest and faces a money laundering charge.
Prosecutors' on Monday cited evidence of an exchange of money and the alleged victim's mother, saying in documents two financial transfers are recorded made by Franco's mother on January 5, 2023, totaling one million pesos or $17,000.
The prosecutors conclude that Franco’s mother cannot prove where she obtained the money and that she deposited it without reason into the account of the minor's mother, whom she did not know.
“He used it to avoid traces with the accused (mother of the minor),” prosecutors say in the 101-page document.
The details are part of the investigation that maintains Franco incurred in commercial sexual exploitation of the minor in complicity with her mother.
Prosecutors say that the minor’s mother went from being a bank employee to leading an ostentatious life and acquiring assets that she cannot justify using the funds she received from Franco.
Prosecutors also cited a vehicle that Franco gifted the woman.
During raids on the house of the minor's mother, prosecutors say they found $68,500, and $35,000 that they allege was delivered by Franco.
According to prosecutors, the transactions and deposits revealed in the financial investigation were made by Franco to buy silence in the face of the abuse he committed.
Franco and the mother of the minor are scheduled in court on Aug. 14.
The most serious charges that Franco faces are rape, for which he could receive sentences of between 10 and 15 years in prison, and human trafficking, which is punishable in the Dominican Republic by sentences of between 15 and 20 years.
Franco, 23, will be tried in a court in the province of Puerto Plata, in the north of the country, where the events allegedly occurred.
MLB placed Franco — who has a $2 million salary this year — on its restricted list, cutting off the pay he had been receiving under administrative leave.
He had been receiving 50% of his salary on that leave, a person familiar with his situation told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity because that detail has not been disclosed publicly. That meant Franco accrued $559,140, or half of his salary for 104 days of the 186-day season.
