Criminal lawyers have denounced the operation of an alleged real estate cartel in Veracruz, which would involve officials from the Public Property Registry, public notaries, judges and experts from the State Judicial Branch.
According to the complaints, through the use of nominees, these people would have taken over properties of high real estate value in Veracruz.
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A complaint filed by the company FINCAR MAZ S.A. DE C.V. before the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) exposes the way in which this alleged real estate cartel operates.
According to the complaint, in a single day, with the help of public notaries Miguel Ángel Díaz Pedroza and his assistant Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Domínguez, they managed to cancel a deed for a 12-hectare property in Xalapa.
Later, they endorsed other deeds with subsequent numbers and sold the land for 98 million pesos, despite the fact that it is subject to a judicial process for fraud, falsehood before the authority and procedural fraud.
How was the real estate cartel discovered?
Jorge Reyes Peralta, advisor to the victims, explained that Martha Leticia Toral, one of those involved, occupied a 12-hectare plot of land for 10 years located on the Enrique C. Rébsamen and R. Smith Extension, in the Mártires de Chicago neighborhood, in Xalapa. Currently, there is only a lumber yard in the place; the rest is a forest, uncultivated land.
With the support of the judge in the case, she managed to obtain a ruling in her favor, in a process that is still ongoing, is not signed, is not a final judgment.
Even so, that woman, along with two “multimillionaire” men, made the same day the deed in her name, then the sale for 98 million pesos and the new deed, with subsequent numbers, in the Public Property Registry, where they supposedly paid a million and a half pesos in cash, another irregularity.
“She grabs them and says: ‘I’m going to throw you deed 32884.’ On the same day, September 7, immediately after that act, they threw away the subsequent deed, 32885, and Martha Leticia Toral Zayas sold to two millionaires: José Alberto Pérez Fuentes and Manuel López Mata, for 98 million pesos, the 120 thousand square meters, the 12 hectares that are currently the property of my client,” said Jorge Reyes Peralta.
“In this sense, they go to the Public Property Registry, pay almost one and a half million pesos in cash, which is prohibited because the administrative mechanism is that they give you a capture line and you pay at the bank. I want to see them go to the bank with one and a half million pesos and the bank does not say anything to them.”
“In the deed, the notary says that they pay for the property of 98 million pesos by bank check, nothing more. Can you imagine what it is like to pay 98 million pesos, that the notary has thrown away the deed improperly and that, immediately, the subsequent deed is made in favor of third parties who say that they paid 98 million pesos? This is a delight for the Financial Intelligence Unit, which we will get to. The complaint that we filed is in the Office of the Prosecutor for Ministerial Investigations.”
“They even have the property registration certificate showing that they are the owners of the property, but they do not have possession, because they know what is in said property. Just at the entrance, because it is 120 thousand square meters, they have a saddlery workshop. Imagine, the millionaires have not even taken possession of the land that they paid 98 million pesos for.”
“I want to tell you that the notaries, in addition to having made the deed irregularly – which is impossible, it is a null deed by law, which is being worked on – they do not make the report to the Financial Intelligence Unit for a transaction of 98 million pesos.”
“They do not record how the transaction is done, they only say that they paid by check. Of course, any notary can tell you that. Obviously, not only the State Attorney General’s Office will have to act, but also the Financial Intelligence Unit.”
Tomás Mundo Arriasa, vice president of the College of Criminal Lawyers of Mexico, said that this is not a unique case, but rather a very common way of operating that has motivated multiple complaints, one of which has come to light today.
For its part, the College of Notaries in Veracruz, through its president, indicated that this is not the first time that there have been accusations against some of its members, but in the end there are authorities in charge of monitoring their actions, since the College has another purpose.
“There are authorities that do monitor their actions, those of their colleagues, but wouldn’t it be the College of Notaries? No, no. The only thing I can tell you is that, you know, there are always accusations.”
“This is not the first time that this has happened and, well, what has happened? You know several examples. It was reported in the media that the notaries did… Well, we do our job, but sometimes it only reaches the media and they want to make a bigger show of an activity that is not well known.
“Sometimes we are accused of some situation that, in the end, turns out that we acted in accordance with what our processes have to dictate,” said Daniel Cordero, president of the College of Notaries.
Source: milenio
