A federal judge issued an arrest warrant, at the request of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), against Víctor Manuel Álvarez Puga, his wife Inés Gómez-Mont, among others, for their alleged responsibility in the crimes of operations with resources of illicit origin, organized crime and embezzlement.
According to an investigation by federal authorities, Álvarez Puga, Gomez-Mont, and his brother Alejandro Álvarez Puga are involved in a large criminal plot in which dozens of shell companies were used to, among other things, facilitate the evasion of taxes, the diversion of public resources and money laundering operations.
Víctor Manuel Álvarez Puga is a Mexican lawyer who, together with his brother, runs the law firm Alvarez Puga & Asociados. According to the magazine Faces, participated by supporting the National Crusade against Hunger and the Mexican Food Bank Association. He married Inés Gómez-Mont in 2015.
Gómez-Mont is a well-known television host. He has worked in various TV Azteca programs, the best known, Ventaneando. The marriage has two children in common, which are added to the three of her, from her previous marriage, and one from Álvarez Puga.
On Friday night, the driver said in an Instagram post that she had learned of the arrest warrant from the media, but she said she was ready to face the legal process.
“We have not had access to that order or to the evidence that justifies it. Only to press reports with partial and fraudulently leaked information, “he said.
The detour route
Federal authorities confirmed Political Animal that, according to the investigations, the Álvarez Pugas would be accomplices, for example, in the misappropriation of funds for almost 2 thousand 950 million pesos that came from the budget of the Ministry of the Interior, of which Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong was the head, during the six-year term of former President Enrique Peña Nieto.
The investigation, known under the code name of “Querubines Case”, managed to identify the route of the diversion of the money from when it left the Government’s accounts until it ended in billing companies directly linked to the Álvarez Pugas. 1,446 banking operations were carried out to triangulate and launder the resources.
The money left the Government through contracts signed by way of restricted invitation in 2016 and 2017. These were resources labeled for federal prisons and with which they intended to acquire security equipment. It was all a simulation.
In reality, what the authorities identified is that the companies to which the contracts were awarded diverted the money into a complex network of invoicing or shell companies. These companies include the following:
* Modemo SA de CV
* Technology and Innovation Arromlop SA de CV (the Arramlop)
* Engineering and Architecture Tangamanga SA de CV
* Creation and modifications Gardel SA de CV
* Comcelint SA de CV
* Rangel SA de CV
* Gupea Construcciones SA de CV
According to the investigations, 2 thousand 950 million pesos were dispersed in 1,446 banking operations towards this network of front companies where there are multiple names, but whose legal representatives are really Inés Gómez-Mont and the Álvarez Puga brothers.
“This is just one documented example of the large network of fraudulent operations in which the Álvarez Puga offices are involved. These tax lawyers are responsible for an incalculable amount of fraud to the treasury and acts of corruption. The investigations against them have been going on for several years and they are considered the founders of the shell company schemes in Mexico, “a prosecutor with full knowledge of the case told this media.
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