When the clock strikes 7:30 pm this Monday, the fatal deadline will have passed. Until then, the Public Ministry has to file the request for a coercive measure against those involved in the alleged corruption structure of the Cobra case, before the 48 hours established by the Criminal Procedure Code.
It all started on Saturday night: at approximately 7:30 pm, the first arrest was made after a long day of interrogations. From that minute the procedural clock that today maintains the country’s attention began to tick.
We invite you to read: Operation Cobra: Twelve raids with 25 prosecutors and eight arrested for SeNaSa fraud
Deputy Attorney General Mirna Ortiz and Deputy Attorney General Wilson Camacho, heads of Pepca and the Prosecution Directorate, have led interrogations, raids and proceedings in search of evidence to support the accusation.
Time pressure is part of the pulse. If the request for coercion is not filed this Monday before 7:30 p.m., the defendants must be released, as established by the Criminal Procedure Code.
The instance must be registered in the Permanent Attention Office of the National District, where the hearing is expected to be heard on Tuesday at 9:00 in the morning. In that room, the Public Ministry will expose what it describes as a systematic corruption scheme that would have operated within the National Health Insurance (SeNaSa).
The defendants in this file are: Santiago Marcelo Hazim Albainy, former director of SeNaSa; Gustavo Enrique Messina Cruz; Germán Rafael Robles Quiñones; Francisco Iván Minaya Pérez; Eduardo Read Estrella; Cinty Acosta Sención; Ramón Alan Speakler Mateo; and Ada Ledesma Ubiera.
According to the investigation, this group would have defrauded the state ARS for billions of pesos through mechanisms that include irregular payments, diversion of funds and accounting maneuvers. Meanwhile, other individuals and legal entities remain under investigation with a view to future prosecutions. Preliminary charges include coalition of officials, prevarication, association of criminals, bribery, fraud against the State, embezzlement, forgery, use of false documents and money laundering.
The Public Ministry claims to have collected evidence of large-scale bribery, adulteration of financial statements and creation of programs without legal basis, used, according to the accusation, to divert public resources and sustain a network of corruption sustained from the executive management of SeNaSa with the participation of officials and health service providers.
As the city moves towards the end of the afternoon, in the Attorney General’s Office everything moves with millimeter precision. Every document, every signature, every minute counts. Because when the clock strikes 7:30, there will no longer be any margin for error.
