The Head of the Digital Forensic Analysis Area, of the Expertise Management of the Public Ministry, Helmut Rodriguez Meza, he thought he had found the business of his life. Every time a prosecutor commissioned him to look for incriminating evidence in the cell phones seized from those investigated, Meza would look for them and offer them, in exchange for paying a bribe, to erase the information that compromised them and issue an expert report in which he said that he had found nothing.
One of the most recent clients of expert witness Helmut Rodríguez was Yober Sanchez Delgadonephew of the owner of Clínica La Luz, the doctor Fermin Silva Cayotopa. Both Fermín Silva and Yober Sánchez are being investigated by the Special Team of Prosecutors against Power Corruption for having participated, together with the former president Pedro Castilloin the appointment of Hugo Chávez Arévalo as general manager of Petroperú, with the purpose of entering tenders and contracts for the state oil company.
As reported by effective collaborators and protected witnesses, Fermín Silva and Yober Sánchez even met with Castillo at the Government Palace to consummate the appointment of Hugo Chávez.
As part of the investigation, the prosecutor of the special team, Raúl Martínez Huamán, asked the expert Helmut Rodríguez to obtain the information contained in Yober Sánchez’s telephone number, in his contact list: ‘Pedro Último Último’, referring to former President Castillo; ‘Hugo Chávez Arévalo’, the former general manager of Petroperú; ‘Fermín Silva Cayotopa’, the owner of Clínica La Luz; ‘Daniel Prince’, among others. Daniel Príncipe Collazos is the businessman who introduced Hugo Chávez to the doctor Fermín Silva and his nephew Yober Sánchez, to take charge of the general management of Petroperú, according to La República sources related to the tax investigation.
Yober Sánchez was concerned because what the special team prosecutor had requested from the expert Helmut Rodríguez seriously compromised him. So when Rodríguez made the proposal, he agreed to pay him a bribe to destroy the evidence.
To this end, Helmut Rodríguez turned to the expert prosecutor Lizeth Cabrera Jáuregui, who offered her services to those investigated as an expert witness.
Helmut Rodríguez’s move consisted of the following: once a prosecutor requested an expert opinion, he looked for the person being investigated, in this case Yober Sánchez, to whom he offered to delete the data and issue an exculpatory report in exchange for a bribe. But instead of paying the money directly, Sánchez disbursed Lizeth Cabrera.
cleaning evidence
For her part, Lizeth Cabrera issued an expert opinion stating that nothing had been found. Helmut Rodríguez agreed with him and validated it with another report.
Indeed, in the expert opinion on the part of Lizeth Cabrera, it was indicated regarding Yober Sánchez’s telephone number: “Information was found on conversations with the requested persons, where it can be seen that they are all of a personal and friendly nature, without identifying conversations that imply or involved in criminal acts.”
This was written by Lizeth Cabrera according to the indication of the expert Helmut Rodríguez to free Yober Sánchez from responsibility, which included the deletion of the evidence contained in his cell phone. Sánchez paid Rodríguez 10,000 soles for this illegal act, according to La República sources related to the tax investigation.
The conversations of Helmut Rodríguez and Lizeth Cabrera were intercepted by court order. The dialogues confirmed that Yobel Sánchez paid a bribe to delete the incriminating information.
In one part of the communication, Helmut Rodríguez, who received Yober Sánchez’s telephone equipment to eliminate the compromising data, called Lizeth Cabrera to indicate that he had completed the destruction of the information and told her what she should indicate in her expert opinion on the part : “It affects that there are no talks of agreements with the Government.” In other words, there was incriminating evidence against Yober Sánchez, his uncle Fermín Silva and former president Pedro Castillo.
With the wiretapped telephone communications, which confirmed the criminal activity of the expert Helmut Rodríguez and the investigated Yober Sánchez, the anti-corruption prosecutor Reynaldo Abia asked Judge Ingrid Estacio to arrest both characters and search their workplaces and homes.
Helmut Rodríguez did not know that Lizeth Cabrera, who had been his subordinate in the Public Ministry, was the one who denounced him.
