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On June 13th, Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI) announced that “non-existent” or “simulated” operations were identified for more than 500 million pesos by the Government of Chiapas during the mandate of Manuel Velasco Coello, currently senator for the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM). They added that the Tax Administration System (SAT) has already started an investigation in this regard. MCCI detailed that during audits carried out between 2019 and 2020, six companies officially listed as “operations simulators”, also known as “ghost companies”, were located. They added that when visiting the homes of the alleged partners of the companies in Chiapas and Morelos, they were able to verify that “they are humble people, without business activity, whose identity was allegedly stolen. Tax addresses do not correspond to companies either; in one case, the domicile is a house with a tin roof and in another a vacant lot.”
Given this, Velasco Coello’s lawyer, Jose Luis Nassar said that “the former governor could not know all the operations carried out under his government, because he delegated decisions to members of his cabinet.” He also expressed himself in favor of “investigating and clarifying whether the services contracted to these companies were executed and, if not, that the responsibilities of the responsible officials be defined.”
MCCI claimed that “despite the fact that the SAT discovered in 2019 the siphoning in Velasco’s management, the federal authorities have not promoted legal actions. On the contrary, in March of this year the official MORENA party formalized an electoral alliance with the Green Party, of which Velasco is a prominent member.”
For its part, the PVEM block in the Senate of the Republic (whose coordinator is Velasco) rejected the use of the institutions “as a political weapon.” They claimed that the SAT is “being used as a tool for political pressure” and called for the PVEM to be a “force that builds bridges with all parliamentary groups to achieve consensus and not for a single force to prevail over others.”
For more information in Spanish:
Gobierno descubre desvío de 500 millones de pesos en administración de Velasco Coello en Chiapas (Animal Político, 13 de junio de 2021)
Gobierno de Manuel Velasco desvió más de 500 millones de pesos en empresas fantasmas (Chiapas Paralelo, 14 de junio de 2021)
PVEM acusa “presión política” del SAT por investigación contra Manuel Velasco(Proceso, 14 de junio de 2021)
Manuel Velasco recibe espaldarazo (El Universal, 15 de junio de 2021)
For more information from SIPAZ:
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