The documents showed that there were other payments to the former collaborator of José Serrano, María Paula Christiansen, in addition to the check for $ 230,000.
International criminal assistance between the United States and Ecuador reveals new documents within the investigations for the embezzlement of about $ 900 million to the Institute of Social Security of the Police (Isspol). Among the documentation delivered by the North American justice appear other payments that Jorge ‘The Magician’ Chérrez –indicated as the main person responsible for the disappearance of police resources – carried out the former correista official, María Paula Christiansen.
Among the folders that the Ecuador Prosecutor’s Office already has are photocopies of two electronic drafts made by Chérrez to Christiensen, totaling $ 97,000. In the documents there is no justification for the delivery of the money and the authorities seek to clarify why the payments were made. In total, including those sums, what was delivered for Cherrez to the former official would be $ 327,000.
Although Christiansen is not charged with the Isspol case, her name began to ring again after the appearance of José Serrano, former Minister of the Interior of Correísmo, in the National Assembly on November 22, 2021.
That day, in a session of the Audit Commission, its president, Fernando Villavicencio, projected the image of a $ check230,000 turned in 2018 by Jorge Chérrez to Christiensen, former collaborator of the Ministry of the Interior, when Serrano was the incumbent. The check justified its delivery for a Spa treatment.
This newspaper sought the version of Diego Chimbo, one of the lawyers in the case, but indicated that he could not pronounce himself because he does not represent Christiansen on that matter. She resides in Miami (United States) and owns the spa Mint Wellness Center, an aesthetic center that has a headquarters in Quito.
The current director of Isspol Renato González spoke on Friday, December 17, 2021 with LA HORA. There he said that he hopes that all the delivery of information from the United States will allow to find the people who benefited from Isspol funds in an irregular way. “We already saw it a long time ago. Everything is being revealed. Transfers, checks to different characters many of whom will have to give explanations timely although at this time they remain potential offended, “he said.
Other payments
The digital portal D ‘Una reported that, between November 1 and 30, 2018, Chérrez credited $ 100,000 to Mauricio Pozo, former Minister of Economy in 2003 and 2020 and former candidate for the Vice Presidency of the Republic. There, he also points out that a year earlier, in 2017, Pozo had received another $ 25,000.
The portal indicates that the data is contained in one of the bodies of the case that is being followed for embezzlement in which 10 people are being processed, including five former insurance officials: David Proaño, Jorge Villarroel, Enrique Espinosa de los Monteros, Santiago Duarte and Alfredo Valverde. The preparatory trial hearing was to be held on Thursday, December 16, but it was deferred to “guarantee the right to defense of the defendants” and for the change of judge. A new date has not yet been set.
Mauricio Pozo, who is not being investigated in this case, responded to a message from LA HORA and indicated that the money corresponds to “consulting work in 2017 and 2018, years in which he was neither a public official nor would anyone know of Chérrez and Isspol’s problems ”. He added that he has given consultancies to firms in the country and abroad since he created your consultant for 27 years.
Without naming names, the current Isspol director addressed the issue. “If someone held a public office in the previous government when these events were already denounced, the least, out of decency, It was to alert the authorities who were on duty and who were already complainants, that there were previous professional connections ”.
He added that receiving a transfer is not bad, “the uncomfortable thing is that when that relationship is evidenced, it is tried to keep it clandestinely and then we are the first offended.”
The Isspol case investigates the embezzlement of $ 900 million. The theory of the case points to the fact that national and international brokerage houses and companies participated in an irregular network that would have carried out movements without records, guarantees or outside the control bodies that damaged the police insurance.
For this case, 15 processes were opened that are under investigation and they seek to reach the trial stage. Among the most advanced processes is the accusation of embezzlement against former Insurance officials and the Citadel case, in which a possible embezzlement of the IESS is also being investigated through a brokerage house.
