The 84 sellers affected by the financial company Census, from where the names of the real beneficiaries of the sale of housing with loans of Fovissste to deposit people outside the operations, they will receive their payments as quickly as possible, he said Herminio Silván Lanestosa, Deputy Director of Credit of Fovissste, interviewed by The Economist this Friday.
According to Silván Lanestosa, Fovissste will return to make the payment of the houses now yes to the real beneficiaries, after the deposits did not reach the accounts of their sellers by instructions of Census, from where the names of those who should receive the money were altered. Fovissste, said the official, will continue for his part with the legal and administrative actions against Census and against whoever is responsible until the funds are recovered, calculated at 68 million pesos.
This newspaper announced yesterday that 84 recipients of loans from Fovissste, the public fund for government employees to buy housing, were affected because Fovissste He had not deposited the money from the properties acquired to the owners of the properties for sale, but to accounts of people not involved in the operations.
The buyers cannot enjoy the property acquired and the owners refuse to hand over their properties, since they have not received the corresponding payment. The Economist he was able to hear the testimonies of 11 affected people who live in cities like Tijuana, Baja California; Saltillo Coahuila; Ocosingo, Chiapas; Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, and in Mexico City. All were advised by Sensa.
Census is a multi-purpose financial company, or sofom, as the institutions registered with Fovissste are known to act as its “agents”, as intermediaries authorized by Fovissste to advise and process those who request mortgage loans from the Mexican State fund.
Sofomes are registered by Condusef, the national commission for the defense of users of financial services, which maintains a public list with information on these entities. The most recent validation of Census for Condusef It has been made on October 3, 2020.
Sensa was incorporated in July 2013. Its founder is Jose Alberto Cano Velez, director of Federal Mortgage Society (SHF) between 2012 and 2018. In the records of Condusef appear Omar Bazán Flores, as chairman of the board of directors of Census, Y Abraham Bazan Flores, as legal representative. Omar bazan He was a deputy for the PRI in the Chihuahua Congress between 2018 and 2021.
The problem of buyers and sellers
Margarita Rocha Trifundio, one of the beneficiaries of loans from Fovissste affected, signed preliminary deeds on September 23, 2021 at the offices of notary 144 in Mexico City. In the sofom Sensa they assured him that the deposit in favor of the seller would be made in a maximum of 20 days and later he could take possession of the property. “Time passed and they kept me going. On the 18th, Mrs. Bibiana Rivas Gudiño, representative of Sensa, notified that the deposit was made by mistake to another person, ”wrote Rocha Trifundio when requesting protection of the National Human Rights Commission.
“I am homeless. I no longer have a place to live, ”Rocha Trifundio told El Economista last Tuesday.
From the other point of view of those affected, that of the sellers, Susana Martínez Junes signed the assignment of the deeds to her property on August 31. The money corresponding to the value of your property was deposited to Compen SA de CV “There they deposited the entire amount of my home payment. (…) I am not willing to give up my house, “he said.
In addition to Compen, other names of legal entities that received Fovissste deposits instead of the beneficial owners are: Desarrollo Ginexalapa SA de CV, Desarrollos y Construcciones del Centro SA de CV, Constructora Altos Bajío SA de CV Y Roma Stronger S.A. de C.V. There are also natural persons among the recipients of the loan money.
Branches of Census in Iztapalapa, Mexico City, and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, were closed. In Saltillo, Coahuila, the branch changed its name to Have more, another sofom in the registry of Condusef, directed by Horacio de la Peña Gil.
“The responsibility is Sensa”
For the deputy director of Credit of Fovissste, Herminio Silván Lanestosa, all responsibility is Sensa, from where alterations to the payment information system were originated to register unauthorized third parties as beneficiaries. There is no fraud of Fovissste employees, said Silván Lanestosa.
“On November 5, I ordered to suspend all the payments that Fovissste was making to Sensa. We realized that the modus operandi that they were working with Sensa was that (…) the names of beneficiaries were uploaded at the beginning, but in the end, before the closing of the operation, they changed the names of the beneficiaries and they were pays another third person who has nothing to do with that credit, “said Silván Lanestosa.
“When we detected it, we stopped all payments for mortgage loans that were not correct from November 5 and from that moment we began to review operations manually, that is, reviewing operations and seeing which yes, which no, which did not correspond . We have a lot of control on the subject. We have not detected other Sofomes, but unfortunately this had already happened, that these 84 operations had happened to us, which are the ones that we have detected so far, ”he said.
Silván Lanestosa explained that sofomes as Census They are responsible for filling out the forms and for notifying the name and account of those who will be the beneficiaries of the payment of the credits. In this process, no personnel from Fovissste:
—Basically all we do is verify in the system that these phases are being fulfilled, because for that the sofom is our agent, since obviously it has a contract with us that requires it to verify the validity. There are no Fovissste employees involved in this section. At the time the payment is made. Obviously we trust the information that the financial institution uploads to the origination information system (SIO) and that is when we validate the payment. Fovissste validates the payment, but the whole process is supposed to have been fine.
“We consider that there is no fraud on the part of Fovissste employees. However, in the complaint of facts that is presented to the Public Function through the Internal Control Body of Fovissste, we are obliged, and we did so when notifying the Internal Control Body. It will be the Internal Control Body that will verify the section of action of each public official to see whether or not there was any omission. We believe that there was no fraud, but if there was any omission, it will also be known and punished for the issue of these payments, at some point a change was made in this system and we did not realize it until the moment when the payment was already made ” .
“What is Fovissste’s responsibility in the case?” Silván Lanestosa was asked.
—We as a financial institution work through these institutions, these financial entities not regulated by the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV), we have an agreement to arrange actions with them, we have a bond that we ask of them, we renew them every year and finally they have a mandate from us. From the outset, in the first instance, the direct responsibility lies with the Sofom, because it made several omissions. First, it allowed its employees to misuse or misuse the password Fovissste gave them. That is the first viable omission, that is, lack of internal supervision, of the Sofom managers with their employees.
What is the responsibility of Fovissste? The first thing we have to do is go out publicly, as we did yesterday, to tell the borrowers: “We have already detected, we have already stopped and we are taking action.” What’s next? These discounts are going to be undone, these discounts via the payroll of borrowers who are already discounting their home and do not yet have the home due to non-payment. We are going to stop these payments and aside from these financial issues will not be generated. We practically stop the payment. Whats Next? We are going to work hand in hand with the sellers, who are the ones affected, because they have not received the money.
“The Fovissste will take actions to pay them for their houses and with that we guarantee the legal certainty of those houses. We as an institution are left with the legal issue, which is ultimately what will help us resolve the issue and recover the money through various mechanisms, such as the request for bail, which has already been done, that is, we have already made the request. Let’s hope to get the money back there and apart from the way that we all already know, which is the criminal way ”.
According to the deputy director of Credit of Fovissste, the surety of Census before the public institution it covers approximately 8.2 million pesos of the 68 million pesos involved in the improper payments.
“We are going to be looking for the right holders. They are in different parts of the republic. And we are going to enable the email [email protected] so that, regardless of whether we look for them, they can also contact us, because we are going to ask them for a series of vouchers, which tell us what the credit is, etcetera, etcetera, and we are going to comment on them, and we are going to accompany them to resolve this problem, “he said.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx