{"id":39129,"date":"2020-09-04T16:37:47","date_gmt":"2020-09-04T21:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/?p=39129"},"modified":"2020-09-07T09:54:04","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T14:54:04","slug":"the-office-of-the-attorney-general-brought-charges-against-alex-saab-and-the-accountant-of-one-of-his-companies-for-alleged-fictitious-financial-operations-and-another-irregular-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/2020\/09\/04\/the-office-of-the-attorney-general-brought-charges-against-alex-saab-and-the-accountant-of-one-of-his-companies-for-alleged-fictitious-financial-operations-and-another-irregular-activities\/","title":{"rendered":"The Office of the Attorney General brought charges against Alex Saab and the accountant of one of his companies for alleged fictitious financial operations and another irregular activities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span lang=\"en-US\">In a virtual hearing before a special criminal judge in Barranquilla (Atl\u00e1ntico), the Office of the Attorney General brought charges against\u00a0<\/span><span lang=\"en-US\">\u00a0<\/span><span lang=\"en-US\">Alex Nain Saab Moran, and the accountant of one of his companies, Devis Jos\u00e9 Mendoza Lapeira, for alleged illegal financial maneuvers that meant losses to the State and increased his patrimony.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en-US\">In the proceeding that was carried out today, a prosecutor appointed to the Special Office against Money Laundering pointed out that Saab Mor\u00e1n, as the legal representative, member of the board of directors and shareholder of the company Shatex SA, allegedly used multiple maneuvers to evade taxes and customs responsibilities, and to simulate legality in an irregular scheme of exports and imports.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en-US\">The indictment specified that this criminal scheme was sponsored by Mendoza Lapeira, who allegedly used his profession as an accountant to hide, transform and administer the different illegal activities.\u00a0<\/span><span lang=\"en-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en-US\">The defendants, who would be involved in an irregular scheme of exports and imports will go to trial for money laundering, the illicit gain of private individuals, criminal conspiracy, aggravated fraud, and fictitious export or import.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><u><span lang=\"en-US\">Shell company\u00a0<\/span><\/u><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en-US\">During the investigation, the Attorney General\u00b4s Office established that the company Shatex S.A. was the axis of all the illegal activities that Saab Mor\u00e1n and his accountant allegedly carried out. In this sense, multiple irregularities were detected, including:\u00a0<\/span><span lang=\"en-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span lang=\"en-US\">An unusual economic growth: the company had an economic growth of 923% in 2007. An unusual growth if it is taken into consideration that they suffered a loss and revenues fell by -33% between 2004 and 2006. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span lang=\"en-US\">Front company: Shatex S.A., ceased to exist in 2010. However, in the following years, it allegedly exported and carried out purchases. In 2011, it facilitated the transfer of more than $2 billion abroad through the Colombian exchange system. These activities were not reported.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"en-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span lang=\"en-US\">Keeping a double set of books: the accounting records indicate tampering in 2007 and 2008. The company showed a financial and operational reality to the National Directorate of Taxes and Customs (Direccion de Impuestos y Aduanas Nacionales (DIAN) in Spanish) with lower incomes in order to pay fewer taxes; while it showed higher figures to the financial sector to demonstrate sufficient economic capacity.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span lang=\"en-US\">Fictitious imports: Shatex S.A., supported the outflow of more than $25,300 billion, through the exchange market, for anticipated imports, which never took place. In other words, it simulated imports to legalize money transfers abroad.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a virtual hearing before a special criminal judge in Barranquilla (Atl\u00e1ntico), the Office of the Attorney General brought charges against\u00a0\u00a0Alex Nain Saab Moran, and the accountant of one of his companies, Devis Jos\u00e9 Mendoza Lapeira, for alleged illegal financial maneuvers that meant losses to the State and increased his patrimony.\u00a0 In the proceeding that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-39129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39129"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39130,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39129\/revisions\/39130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}