Collado linked to international money-laundering network

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Mexican lawyer Juan Collado was denounced for allegedly owning bank accounts abroad through which he and José Antonio Rico Rico , former president of Libertad Servicios Financieros S.A. de C.V. , received money resulting from their illicit operations.

Businessman Sergio Bustamante Figueroa , who filed a report on June before the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) , highlighted that Collado and Rico received millionaire transfers in accounts in Spain, Andorra, and Switzerland

The FGR stated that the transfers were allegedly done by Tania Patricia García Ortega to introduce resources from the simulation of sales and the obtention of credits in the financial system for money-laundering.

Bustamante’s report derived from the sale realized by Operadora Inmuebles del Centro of a land that was supposedly his, transaction that happened, he said, through the theft of his identity.

“I learned from different resources that from the date of the illegal sale of my property and using the same resources, illegal financial activities are done inside Libertad Servicios Financieros , such as transfers of important amounts to financial entities abroad, like Spain and Andorra, scheme that, according to my informers, is used as method for money laundering , reason why those involved travel constantly to such countries, and all this can be proved with the passports of Collado Mocelo, Rico Rico, and their respective relatives,” he specified

According to the investigation of the FGR, Collado Mocelo allegedly committed money laundering by benefiting from the illegal sale of the property located in Fray Luis de León and Bernardo Quintana Boulevard, in the city of Santiago de Querétaro, finalized on April 14th, 2015.

That venue was owned by Operadora Inmuebles del Centro , of which Sergio Bustamante Figueroa, the plaintiff , and José Antonio Rico Rico, one of the accused , were shareholders since April 21st, 2010 .

Bustamante Figueroa affirmed that on July 30th, 2013 , the company held an assembly to which he was never convened and in which they stole their identity to sell the total of his and Rico’s shares to José de Jesús Alberto Cárdenas Rico and Fanny Gabriela Frías Cantú .

José Antonio Vargas Hernández presented a power of attorney allegedly granted by Cárdenas Rico on his favor, to sell the venue in Querétaro for MXN $156 million to Libertad Servicios Financieros, on March 25th, 2015 .

Bustamante Figueroa said that the property is worth MXN $700 million because a building called Zona Comercial Centro Sur, with six floors and another six levels for parking, was built there.

From the sale, Bustamante claims that Collado, as president of the Administrative Council of Libertad Servicios Financieros , got benefitted with MXN $24 million that he received on April 10th, 2015 through a deposit made by García Ortega, in the BBVA account 012180004512185068.

He described that the accused used the companies Administradora Cimatario, Despacho Integral de Inmuebles and Administradora Ario , owned by Rico Rico, to divide the resources from the sale of the land, the same that because of being illegal, made the money illegal too.

Through bank transfers that included the deposits made by Tania Patricia García Ortega to accounts in Spain, Andorra and Switzerland addressed to Collado and Rico , the illicit resources were introduced to the financial system for “ money laundering ,” explained the FGR.

The Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) noted that to “move” the resources through the obtention of credits and simulated sales between them (Administradora Cimatario, Despacho Integral de Inmuebles, and Administradora Ario) they can be part of a scheme of shell companies , created to hamper the detection of the origin of the money.

The FGR noted that Rico, Collado, García Ortega, Rodríguez Gálvez and Vargas Hernández were organized through these companies, with which they made up “ a criminal group nine years ago ,” since they sold a property that did not belong to them and the money was deposited in different accounts to hide its origin.