Infonavit-Telra case: three people involved in alleged fraud were arrested

The Attorney General's Office (FGR) announced that three people were arrested for an alleged fraud committed against the Institute of the National Housing Fund for Workers (INFONAVIT) in 2018.

It was indicated that legal proceedings are still ongoing for the crime of operations with remedies of unlawful origin against “the legal representatives of TELRA REALTY, S.A.P.I. de C.V., as a result of a complaint filed” by INFONAVIT.

It was also specified that the inquiries began after the then Attorney General's Office (PGR) opened an investigation kit on February 8, 2018. This information was released through a statement issued by the FGR itself on April 1, 2022.

The document detailed that, following the investigations, on February 10, 2020, “the legal representative of two of the defendants returned 2 billion pesos national currency to the Attorney General's Office,” an amount that was placed on the 17th of that same month in the custody of the Institute for Returning the Stolen to the People (INDEP).

It should be noted that the check for that amount was first in the hands of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), because at his morning conference on February 10, 2020, Alejandro Gertz Manero, the prosecutor of the Republic, handed the millionaire sum to the president.

Regarding the situation, López Obrador said that the resources would be used to pay the prizes for the raffle of the presidential plane and stated that the recovery of the money “was not only from common crime, but also from white-collar crime.”

AMLO later clarified: “The prosecutor gave us that money, 2 billion pesos, and then it was proved that it was not the correct legal procedure and that that money had to be handed over to INFONAVIT.”

On the other hand, the statement mentions that on February 23, 2021, the affected company requested delivery of that amount, which was sent on April 13 of the same year “once the relevant legal requirements were met”.

However, in parallel to all that was stated, the authorities of the Prosecutor's Office were studying the case, which was expanded and prosecuted. Thanks to the process, “the corresponding arrest warrants were obtained, both for the offence of operations with resources of unlawful origin, and for organized crime; the arrest warrant was completed against three of the accused, and two more remain to be completed”.

It was also shared that the FGR is still actively working to further clarify the facts of the event four years ago. In this situation, two people were told that they had looted INFONAVIT funds for about 5 billion pesos.

The alleged fraud took place during Enrique Peña Nieto's six-year term after the Institution signed an important contract to carry out two Mortgage Mobility and Portfolio Regularization programs with the help of the real estate company E-Group and Telra Realty.

The first to be mentioned were those who at that time were the legal representatives of the second company, a company to which INFONAVIT had allegedly delivered the 5 billion.

Despite the fact that relations between the Institute and the company began in 2014 with the signing of various agreements, in 2017 the INFONAVIT board of directors annulled the contracts on the grounds that the contracting had been improper.

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