At least 200 people from the municipalities of Pedro Escobedo, Huimilpan, San Juan del Río, and El Marqués were victims of fraud totaling 50 million pesos perpetrated by Integradora Independencia, a consumer cooperative of goods and services, S de RL de CV, since 2020.
In January 2026, the case was finally brought to court, resulting in 42 arrest warrants; 24 remain unexecuted, and only 10 people have been formally charged. In all cases, the defendants are free pending trial, and the judge has postponed hearings up to four times.
The victims lament the slowness and lack of transparency in the actions of the justice system after their savings vanished overnight; they believe these delays are “benefiting the fraudsters.”
According to testimonies gathered by La Jornada, Integradora Independencia was established as Caja Independencia Sociedad Cooperativa de Ahorro y Préstamo in May 1995; it operated 11 branches in four municipalities surrounding the state capital.
It was at the end of 2019 that members noticed their savings were not being returned; the company claimed it had been defrauded and that the manager on duty had died.
In 2020, the first complaints were filed with the Querétaro State Prosecutor’s Office, which declared the case a generic fraud.
In September of that same year, some of the defrauded individuals signed a deferred compliance settlement agreement, a mechanism for resolving disputes in criminal matters. The agreement involved the Secretariat of Citizen Security, the new manager of the cooperative, and 44 members, and established payment dates and amounts. The integrator failed to deliver, and the victims claim that the prosecutor’s office did not enforce a clause stipulating that the case would be taken to court if this occurred.
In 2021, some of those defrauded approached the then-governor, Francisco Domínguez Servién (2015-2021), of the National Action Party (PAN), to request his support. They also presented their case to the candidate and current governor, Mauricio Kuri, also of the PAN, but received no response.
In addition to the financial loss, those affected describe suffering health problems and report that one partner died “of grief because she couldn’t recover the money her son sent her to build a house.”
Juan Román Ayala, a retired teacher, began saving in 1995. He recounts that back then there were no problems, “I deposited my savings every two weeks, every month. Starting in 2020, when I tried to withdraw money, they told me, ‘There’s none, come back tomorrow.’ Many people were forced to file complaints; some got sick, and others even died.”
Alberto Becerril began saving in 2001 “with the hope of buying land. I sold some small plots I owned to expand my property; but it turns out that in 2019, when I tried to withdraw my money, they denied it.”
He explained that there were lengthy bureaucratic procedures that even forced them to restart the case. “It makes me think there’s a very powerful person behind this. Since neither governors nor any authority has brought justice.”
Ángeles Arreola explained that the credit union’s lawyer argued against filing a lawsuit “because if you do, instead of focusing on resolving your financial issues, we’ll be focused on your lawsuits.”
María Rosario Machuca, 88, shared that she had brought the problem to the attention of candidate Mauricio Kuri during his campaign. Once he took office as governor, she reminded him of his promise, but she didn’t receive the support she expected.
The victims explained that although the prosecutor’s office classified the case as generic fraud in 2020, neither the state government nor the prosecutor’s office issued any warnings to prevent people from continuing to save with the credit union.
They lamented that successive municipal administrations continued to grant operating licenses.
They reported that on July 21, 2023, the Querétaro prosecutor’s office, through its Specialized Unit for Property Crimes, issued a ruling from the Registry of Non-Prosecution (non-existence of the crime). The main argument used was that there was no fraud in the fundraising process.
From 2020 to 2025, more complaints accumulated, and in February of last year, the victims presented their case before the Congress of the Union at the invitation of Morena party representative Gilberto Herrera Ruiz. During February and March, they went to the Attorney General’s Office, the State Government Palace, the State Congress, and the Palace of Justice on several occasions.
Until March 17, 2025, the business was still operating, at least in Huimilpan (the municipal seat) and Escolásticas, accepting money and issuing investment renewals. The following day, the Huimilpan and Pedro Escobedo branches of the Caja Integradora (a savings and loan cooperative) were seized by the state Attorney General’s Office and police. To this day, the doors remain sealed.
Source: jornada
