Rafael Zaga Tawilwho is in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has been wanted since 2020 by the Mexican justice system for organized crime and operations with resources of illicit origin, derived from the compensation of the Infonavit in favor of his company Telra Realty, which handled mortgage operations in Mexico.
The Attorney General’s Office of the Republic (FGR) accuses him of two serious crimes: organized crime and fraud against Infonavit for 5 billion pesos.
From 2014 to February 2016, when Infonavit was directed by Alejandro Murat, the Institute signed several contracts with the company Telra Realty for two programs: the administration of the Mortgage Mobility Program (PMH) and fix overdue credits.
According to the ministerial investigation, both Zaga Tawillike his son, Elías Zaga Hanono, were accused of benefiting from a compensation agreement for the early termination of contracts on technological programs between said firm and Infonavit, causing damages to the institute for more than five billion pesos.
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According to this, between 2015 and 2016, Infonavit signed three collaboration contracts with Telra Realty for the creation, development and promotion of the “Mortgage Mobility” program to repair, remodel and improve abandoned homes to be occupied by Infonavit beneficiaries and the creation and promotion of marketing programs among Infonavit beneficiaries for the housing rental with option to purchase or exchange.
However, in 2017, under the direction of David Penchynathe Board of Directors of Infonavit agreed to the early termination of the contracts with Telra, arguing that the contracts affected the public interest of the institute and proposing a mediation procedure.
Given this, Telra Realty He was dissatisfied, stating that the decision to terminate the contracts was arbitrary and unjustified and Infonavit had no reason to terminate a bilateral legal relationship; however, he agreed that mediation be carried out to resolve their differences.
After this, the Board of Directors of Infonavit unanimously approved the Transaction Contract by which it agreed to compensate Telra for terminating the contracts with Telra and instructed the administration to proceed with the payments, which were made in six monthly and consecutive installments from October 2017 to March 2018 for a total amount of five thousand 080 million pesos.
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However, the FGR detected that Telra Realty did not have the infrastructure or capacity to fulfill the original contracts.
Therefore, the payment of five billion of pesos was illegal and the FGR argues that it was a fraud.
Rafael’s brother was imprisoned in this case. Teófilo Zaga Tawiland two former Infonavit officials: Omar Cedillo Villavicencioformer secretary general and Alejandro Gabriel Cerda Erdmannformer legal coordinator.
Both Cedillo Villavicencio and Cerda Erdmann were released from prison in 2022 after agreeing with the FGR on a criterion of opportunity that made them collaborating witnesses.
Rafael Zaga Tawil was the only one still at large until now.
The platform developed by Telra for the Mortgage Mobility Program It is the one that was later used by Infonavit in the program Cambiavit.
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