The convicted men provided false documents in which they claimed that they had completed 2,616 hours of in-person postgraduate studies in Brazil. However, it was proven that they did not meet the requirements demanded by the educational center and were in that country for short periods of time.
Based on the evidence provided by the Attorney General’s Office, 11 doctors who illegally obtained degrees from a university in Brazil that recognized them as specialists in plastic and aesthetic surgery, were sentenced to more than 6 years in prison by circuit court judges in Bogotá.
The people involved are Víctor Manuel Jaramillo Torres, Javier Locano Botero, Rodolfo Albeiro López Zapata, Giovanni Cortés Montealegre, Marco Antonio Vergara Calero, Gerardo Rojas Gómez, Alfredo Rodríguez Figueroa, María Mónica Martínez Martínez, Rubén Darío Arciniegas Martínez, Juan Fernando Abadía Silva y Henry Diego Fernando Ortiz Silva.
They were all found responsible for the crimes of falsification of private documents and procedural fraud.
A prosecutor appointed to the Directorate Specialized in the fight against Money Laundering demonstrated that these people provided false documentation to validate their degrees before the Ministry of National Education. They provided certificates of studies, the school history that reported 2,616 hours completed and the text that mentioned the completion of hours of practice in hospitals, among others.
During the investigation, it was established that the doctors did not comply with the four-year requirement of attendance demanded by the university, and were in that country for short periods of time, between 51 and 95 days maximum.
Due to the convictions, the Ministry of Health will have to update the registry of human talent (Registro Único Nacional del Talento Humano en Salud-ReTHUS) so that, citizens will know the real skills and clinical specialties that these professionals can perform. For its part, the Ministry of Education must cancel the resolutions of validation of academic degrees.
The convictions
Víctor Manuel Jaramillo Torres, Javier Locano Botero and Rodolfo Albeiro López Zapata were sentenced to 6 years and 6 months in prison, and to pay 200 legal monthly minimum wages.
Giovanni Cortés Montealegre, Marco Antonio Vergara Calero, Gerardo Rojas Gómez, Alfredo Rodríguez Figueroa, María Mónica Martínez Martínez, Rubén Darío Arciniegas Martínez, Juan Fernando Abadía Silva and Henry Diego Fernando Ortiz Silva were sentenced to 7 years in prison. They were disbarred from the practice of public functions for 5 years.
The judge of the case issued arrest warrants so that, the convicted men must serve their sentences in prison.
The information contained in this press release corresponds to the narration of the objective news provided by the officials in charge of carrying out criminal investigations within the Office of the Attorney General. By the time this communication is disclosed, the legal status of the people mentioned is still pending to be resolved by the competent judicial authority, always under the presumption of innocence contemplated by Article 29 of the Political Constitution and Article 7 of Law 906 of 2004.