Gustavo Castillo Garcia
Newspaper La Jornada
Friday April 29, 2022, p. 8
As part of the actions against acts of corruption, a federal judge linked to criminal proceedings eight officials and former officials of the Institute of Security and Social Services of State Workers (Issste), who in 2019 participated in a fraud for more than 831 million pesos, related to the acquisition of medical equipment and healing material.
The case began in March 2021, when the then regulatory director of administration and finance of the institute, Jens Pedro Lohmann Iturburu, filed a complaint with the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR), where he reported that public servants participated in a scheme through the which the Issste irregularly settled invoices that had already been accrued.
Judge José Artemio Zúñiga Mendoza linked to criminal proceedings eight involved in the improper payment to the company Seleccións Médicas del Centro, SA de CV, a specialized drug company accused of participating in the hoarding of more than 60 percent of the tenders that were carried out in the health sector during the government of Enrique Peña Nieto.
According to information from the Judicial Power of the Federation (PJF), after six days of the initial hearing, Judge Zúñiga Mendoza, based in the North Prison, ordered the link to the process against the officials and former officials who participated in the improper payment of 831 million pesos, including José Febo Trujeque Ramírez, who until last March served as regulatory director of legal procedures.
The judge determined that the defendants, in their capacity as public servants, committed the crime of illicit use of powers and faculties and imposed precautionary measures on them to face the criminal process in freedom.
The resolution states that the representatives of the Specialized Prosecutor for the Fight against Corruption, belonging to the FGR, provided sufficient evidence to prove the probable commission of the illegal acts and therefore the connection to the process within the criminal case was decreed 380 /2021.
The economic impact was perpetrated when the head of the Issste was Luis Antonio Ramírez Pineda. who is currently the owner of the National Bank for Foreign Trade (Bancomext).
The company Seleccións Médicas del Centro, SA de CV, obtained a double payment from the institute, for accounts that had already been collected; The detected fraud amounts to 831 million pesos, which were paid between March and December 2019.
The other defendants in this case were identified during the initial hearing, such as Marx Yazalde Ortiz Correa, who worked as regulatory director of legal procedures for Issste and is currently director of legal affairs for the National Polytechnic Institute; Sandy Toledo Sánchez, who continues in the health agency as administrative coordinator, as well as the head of civil affairs services, Juan Daniel Álvarez Santillán, and Javier Mejía Estañol, head of civil affairs services, attached to the Regulatory Directorate of Legal Procedures at Issste, as well as the former head of the Programming and Budget Subdirectorate, Irma Merlos Merlos, who according to her Linkedln, works as an advisor to the government of the state of Tamaulipas.
In addition, Sebastián López Herrera, former head of Issste services, who currently works at IMSS as deputy head of the Inspection Monitoring Division, and Juan Carlos Larrieu Creel, former deputy director of infrastructure and services attached to the Institute’s Administration Directorate, who currently serves as chairman of the board of directors at Tenmas, SA de CV, Multiple Purpose Financial Society.
