MEXICALI.- A Baja California cabinet member was accused of tax fraud, according to a media report.
Secretary of Economic Development Carlo Bonfante allegedly committed fraud against the Mexican Internal Revenue Service, known in Spanish as SAT, said Mexico City newspaper El Financiero.
The official presumably used his companies to avoid paying 239 million pesos or $13.28 million in taxes.
The daily reported that an internal SAT investigation says Bonfante’s wife used her company to transfer funds to non-existent businesses or for unverifiable services in order to avoid paying taxes.
Between 2003 and 2015, Bonfante’s company Industrias Zahori requested SAT a reimbursement of 262.4 million pesos in Sales and Use Tax, of which 239 million were returned.
The company was founded by Bonfante along with his wife Eva María Gallego, his brother-in-law Jorge Gallego and Federico Díaz, the standing President of Mexicali’s Entrepreneurial Coordinating Center.
When the company requested last year the devolution of tax funds, the SAT responded by sending the petition to its Mexicali office.
On March, the Mexican agency reported the company had several questionable transactions, mainly due to the lack of supporting documentation from its Mexicali office and the inexistence of businesses included on the report.
SAT’s Fiscal Audit Manager in Mexicali José Ramón Gurrola was fired and is under criminal investigation, according to a complaint filed with the agency’s Internal Affairs office, the newspaper said.
According to El Financiero, Gurrola met by the end of May with two Zahori representatives for 30 minutes.
That same day, Gurrola wrote an email to the SAT’s Central Administration of Strategic Audit and said his office “had needed elements to make the company a partial and upfront reimburse of taxes.”
Congresswoman Nancy Sánchez, a Mexicali member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, demanded “a more objective and a less condescending attitude from the state” regarding the issue.
“Speak of a millionaire tax fraud is delicate issue by itself, but regardless of the amount, the fact that a high-rank state official has taken advantage of his position to obtain personal benefit by simulating transactions through non-existing companies is something that must not be tolerated from a public servant,” she said. (Bonfante) “is a close collaborator to the governor, who invited (Bonfante) to occupy a secretary position within his cabinet.”
Sánchez recalled this is not the first time the issue has been brought up by the media and has not been addressed by the state.
The Mexican lawmaker asked Assembly members the opening of an investigation and said she hopes the secretary is removed from his position.
Bonfante has not responded to the accusations.
RadarBC
