A series of suspiciously executed bank deposits put under the magnifying glass Health Minister, George Lopez, who has been pointed out by several witnesses to have made use of his position to execute a practice known as ‘smurfing’. This action would have been carried out in favor of his former partner and mother of his children, Dervy Apaza Meza.
According to the “Punto final” report, on August 31 of this year, six workers from the ministerial office were called to the office of the head of the Health portfolio to make several deposits in different BCP agencies in Lima, all of them at a single account, that of Apaza Mendoza. The 12 transactions added up to a total of 98,400 soles.
Witnesses cited by the Sunday newspaper pointed out to Jorge López that he had coordinated the operation and that he was the one who gave them the account number to which these movements should be made. Two high-ranking Minsa officials, Juan Carlos Delgado Echevarría (head of the advisory cabinet) and Dayse Gamarra Vera (assistant to the minister), were also accused of being the main instigators.
Thus, officials Lesly Vivar Saavedra (administrative assistant of the ministerial office), César Augusto Roque (of the General Administration Office), Esperanza Coello (administrative coordinator of the ministerial office), Carlos Sánchez (chauffeur of the ministerial office) and Pedro Vásquez Espinola carried out each one two deposits of 9,000 soles, with the exception of Vásquez Espinola, who did so with 9,900 soles.
Along with them, it was reported that there is a last employee whose identity has not yet been confirmed, who made several transactions that totaled 16,500 soles.
Among the evidence presented by Latina were two photographs taken by the workers who were given the order. One of them shows the envelopes delivered and the other shows the voucher of one of the payments made, in which it is revealed that the predominant amount in the transactions.
A week before this event, on September 23, the well-known doctor Luis Quito, a businessman who owns several medical centers throughout the capital and a member of the Health sector, made a deposit to an account in dollars that Dervy Apaza Meza opened a day before. The amount of this transaction was $70,000.
The new apartment of Jorge López’s ex-partner
A day later, Apaza Meza bought an apartment in Jesús María for 412,000 soles, which was paid with money from the savings account of the ex-partner of the Minister of Health.
This amount was mobilized in a payment system in which the first installment was paid for a point of S/ 268,617 one day after the transfer in dollars made by Dr. Luis Quito and the second installment, of 81,582 soles, was paid a day after the deposits made by Minsa workers on September 1.
Both were made to Real Estate 21 SAC, the entity with which the apartment was acquired.
When Apaza Meza was asked about the alleged ‘smurfing’ operation at the end of August, she stated: “I have asked the man for that amount for a very personal matter that I have with his daughters.”
In addition, in the same Sunday statements, Jorge López’s ex-partner made reference to the sale of a property for which she had obtained some funds, although she did not specify what it was.
“I am a former cohabitant and the funds that I have acquired are for what he (Jorge López) has left me. (…) He has left me an asset and I have sold that asset. And I have a document to support where I got that from, ”he assured.
Minister Jorge López responds
After this revelation, the Minister of Health spoke on the same program, pointing out that this order made to the Minsa workers was never issued by him.
“I entrusted it to my trusted staff, whom I asked to please make the deposit, taking into account my busy schedule as minister. At no time did I meet with any ministry worker to order these deposits to be made. Clarify that it was a single trusted person to whom I entrusted this order, “said Lopez.
In addition, regarding the deposit of Dr. Quito, the minister clarified that it was the payment for a tomograph that he had given to his ex-partner, and that it was sold to the businessman.
“I gave my ex-partner a product due to a judicial agreement, a personal, family agreement, I gave her a series of goods, including a tomograph, which she sells that product to Mr. Quito, that’s why Mr. Quito makes the deposit to her”, he indicated.
However, López did not explain why he had the 98,000 soles in cash in his office; nor why this amount had been deposited in different agencies and for amounts less than 10,000 soles. What he did assert is that he had documents of all these transactions carried out, which he indicated as “duly documented and accredited.”
