2023-11-02 04:28:06
The Prosecutor’s Office says that almost 2,000 people and companies would have used the Atenea network. / Illustration Paula Sánchez.
Photo: Paula Sánchez
Obtaining the conviction of Diana Alexandra Gutiérrez, former official of the National Tax and Customs Directorate (DIAN), is the next major objective of the Special Directorate once morest Tax Crimes of the Prosecutor’s Office. Against Gutiérrez, there is a voluminous file, which puts her on the ropes, for the so-called Red Atenea case, a macro investigation that has allowed the discovery of the modus operandi of 1,970 people and companies that defrauded the State fiscally, through operations fictitious invoices. The secret file, as the Prosecutor’s Office was able to conclude, would be Gutiérrez, who from within the DIAN would have tried to clean up the tricks of the discovered tax criminals.
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Diana Alexandra Gutiérrez, present at the accusation hearing from the Puente Aranda URI in Bogotá.
Photo: Judicial Branch
The case once morest Gutiérrez is a piece of the puzzle of the Prosecutor’s Office in its race to achieve the conviction of those involved in the Atenea Network. In principle, Olga Lucía Díaz, alias La Patrona, fell, who in the last decade created a group of fake companies in the Ricaurte neighborhood (Bogotá) that sold false invoices, which allowed thousands of companies to deceive the DIAN and keep million in VAT and income tax refunds. One of the key links that enriched himself from this corrupt scheme was Jairo Lesmes Salaz, who a few days ago accepted charges. The legal representative of the Colombian Learning Institute (Incap), specialized in technical education, sought to pocket $500 million. It is estimated that companies like Incap have enriched themselves by up to $320,000 million.
Gutiérrez, imprisoned in the Puente Aranda URI while her case progresses, is, for the Prosecutor’s Office, the one who closed the cycle of fraud through institutional cover-up. After taking office in the DIAN Collections Division, where she worked since 2011, she acquired remarkable knowledge of the tax world, which she would have put at the service of Olga Lucía Díaz, the Patron. According to the accusation, the investigated Cristian Eduardo Zafra, the latter’s accounting advisor, has revealed everything he knows regarding the Atenea Network and blamed Gutiérrez. The knowledge of her, with which judicial benefits are at stake, allowed the Prosecutor’s Office to conclude, along with other evidence, that the former official Gutiérrez would have worked for the network between 2017 and 2019, and that, for this reason, she obtained up to $ 110 millions.
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First installment: The papers of the Atenea network: the story of the billionaire who embezzled the DIAN
According to the prosecutor in the case, WhatsApp messages between the accounting advisor Zafra and the former official Gutiérrez reveal encrypted language between the two. “Words like ‘shoe size’ or ‘shoe model’ were used to talk regarding prices that must be paid for procedures within the DIAN or obtaining information,” explained the Prosecutor’s Office. The capabilities of the accused in the institution were classified as part of the “catalog.” The investigating body accused Gutiérrez, in principle, of having revealed secret information to the Patrona in exchange for $3,500,000. For example, on November 27, 2017, the official would have sent by mail data that only the DIAN knew regarding the fake company Inversiones y Comercializadora Díaz SAS.
Among the companies established by the Patrona was also Comercializadora Mundial GD, whose commercial registration was canceled in 2018. Although its corporate purpose mentioned that it delivered products in industrial quantities, in reality, it was an office with a desk and a handful of employees, who issued false invoices in favor of companies established in the field of construction, hardware products, textiles and even educational institutions, such as INCAP. So that the irregularities were never known, according to the accusation, the Patrona paid $35 million to the former official Gutiérrez for the “concealment of the file” in the DIAN, in 2018. The idea was that Comercializadora Mundial GD would not be registered as a paper and paper company. continue operating.
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But that was not the only time that Gutiérrez allegedly wanted to get the dust under the rug. In June 2018, he would have done the same favor to hide the misdeeds of a ferroelectric company Remax, at a cost of $35 million. As the prosecutor in the case would say, a size 35 shoe size. On the other hand, to prevent the company Comercializadora Mundial GD from being registered with the DIAN as a fictitious supplier of merchandise, in October 2018, former official Gutiérrez would have collected $24 million. The chats in the possession of the Prosecutor’s Office would allow us to see the “desperation in which Olga Lucía Díaz (the Patron) finds herself due to the multiple requirements of the DIAN.”
In the end, in July 2019, the Bogotá sectional management of the DIAN consolidated its internal investigation to determine that the Patrona’s companies were not real, addressing the source of the fraud: the wineries in Ricaurte. And although the panorama was bleak and the deception of the State was palpable, 14 days following the search of the property, the former official Gutiérrez, at the request of the accounting advisor Zafra, would have managed nothing more and nothing less than decreeing the nullity of the actions. She sought the closure of the process “under the argument that the DIAN exceeded the search of the property” and that “all the items that had been taken” be returned to the Patrona, the Prosecutor’s Office accused. This procedure was never carried out and, in fact, the Patrona was captured in August 2019.
The Prosecutor’s Office clarified, at the request of the judge in the case, that the entire scheme would have taken place under the noses of the DIAN offices in Bogotá, in meetings held in nearby cafes. The accused’s lawyer, Andrés Orjuela, criticized that there is no precise information regarding how, supposedly, the confidential information that the Patrona took advantage of was produced. In short, the Prosecutor’s Office is not clear regarding the circumstances of time, manner and place once morest her client, who does not know how she participated in this scheme. However, when the prosecutor revealed the cards that will be played in the trial, she assured that advisor Zafra himself will testify. With the aggravating factor that the Patrona has been providing information for three years that would reveal how she managed to infiltrate the DIAN for years.
Photo: Illustrator: Paula Sánche
Photo: Illustrator: Paula Sánchez.
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