The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) withdrew the criminal proceedings and the arrest warrants against three lawyers and an accountant, who were denounced by imprisoned businessman Juan Collado Modelo, for allegedly extorting him.
As part of criminal case 550/2021, the FGR had requested arrest warrants last Thursday against Juan Antonio Araujo Riva Palacio, César Omar González Hernández, David Gómez Arnau and Isaac Pérez Rodríguez, whom Collado also linked at the time with the former Legal Counselor of the Presidency of the Republic, Julio Scherer.
The lawyers and the accountant were charged by the FGR with the crimes of extortion, influence peddling, money laundering and criminal association.
It was last Friday through the letter UEIDCSPAJ-068/2022 that the FGR withdrew from the criminal proceedings against him, as well as the arrest warrants that he had requested before the judge of the North Prison, José Rivas González.
“I allow myself to request that you consider me withdrawn from the request for an arrest warrant made by official letter 93/2022 of April 7 of the current year,” María Eugenia Castañón Osorio, an agent of the federal public ministry attached to the Unit, detailed in her letter. Specialized in Investigation of Crimes Committed by Public Servants and against the Administration of Justice.
The FGR did not specify the reasons for its withdrawal, although sources say that it could carry out a new, more extensive investigation folder on the subject of influence peddling.
On March 1, just at the beginning of this trial, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that he would not intercede for anyone who has committed a crime, referring to Julio Scherer, who was one of his closest collaborators until his resignation to the position in August of last year.
At the time, Julio Scherer denied having used his position as Legal Advisor to the Presidency to influence criminal proceedings against relevant figures such as Juan Collado, Inés Gómez Mont and her husband, Víctor Manuel Álvarez. In contrast, he accused the Attorney General of the Republic, Alejandro Gertz Manero, of persecuting him, and of using his position to seek “personal revenge.”