Mexico City, 18 Mar A federal court upheld a trial for the probable crimes of organized crime and operations with illicit resources against a businessman related to the corruption case known as the Master Scam. In a statement, the Attorney General's Office of Mexico (FGR), through the Office of the Specialized Prosecutor for Regional Control (FECOR), reported on Thursday that it obtained a favorable decision in an indirect amparo proceeding against an appeal judgment filed by businessman Luis Antonio Valenciano Zapata. In November 2020, the FGR obtained the link to the process of Valenciano Zapata, identified as Luis “V” by the FGR, involved in the so-called Master Scam. “As a shareholder and sole administrator of a company, together with others, he was probably credited with illegally obtaining a large sum of money in 2014, from federal resources of a Secretary of State, through simulated services,” FGR said. In the report, the FGR noted that on March 9, 2022, a unitary court in the State of Mexico denied protection and protection to complainant Luis “V”. In addition, he said that the amparo court considered that the evidence provided establishes the presumption that “the acts attributed to the complainant” were committed. The Master Scam is a plot that was denounced in 2017 by the news portal Animal Político and the organization Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI). The investigation revealed that Enrique Peña Nieto's government (2012-2018) had used “shell companies” to divert resources through fraudulent agreements. The Secretary of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (2015-2018) and Social Development (2012-2018), Rosario Robles, is accused of allowing the public diversion of more than 5 billion pesos ($245 million) through universities and shell companies in this case. Last October, a judge refused to release her from the women's prison in Santa Martha, in Mexico City, where she has been imprisoned since August 2019 awaiting trial for risk of flight. In several interviews, the former official has stated that she considers herself to be persecuted by the current government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and has denounced that “all the power of a State has been discharged against her”. CHIEF jmrg/mqb/aa
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