Operator News
Colombia – Gaming Board officials arrested in Colombia
By Phil - 30 March 2017
The Prosecutor’s Office has arrested a number of officials belonging to The Colombian Gaming Control Board (Coljuegos) as well as other public officials for corruption.
The arrests were made for alleged irregularities over the issuing of licences for gaming establishments which operate in the departments of Caldas, Quindío and Risaralda.
Around 250 police officers took place in the raids in the early hours of the morning in twelve locations. The Prosecutor’s office arrested 31 people in all.
According to investigators, local gaming officials turned a blind eye allowing gaming establishments to operate without having to meet their full legal requirements under law in return for around $2,200m pesos.
Among the detainees are the former president of Coljuegos, Rodrigo Vélez as well as the vice president of Coljuegos, Diego Rafael Pérez. In addition the former president of ETESA, César Torres as well as another ex-president of ETESA, Germán Eduardo Mogollón were also arrested. ETESA (The Territorial Enterprise for Health) is the name for the previous gaming board which collected gaming revenue on behalf of the health sector. After a number of high profile scandals, when it was revealed that members of the board were accepting bribes in return for stays of closure, the newly appointed Gaming Board (Coljuegos) was set up in 2012.
Director of the Anticorruption Unit for the Attorney General’s Office, Luis Gustavo Moreno said: “These arrests are the result of an exhaustive investigation that began in March 2016, after some findings during an audit, which allowed the Prosecutor’s Office to conduct an investigation in which it was determined that contracts were being made through front companies.”
During the operations, which were carried out by the Criminal Investigation Department and the Specialised National Prosecutor’s Office against Corruption, 198 slot machines were also seized. The Attorney General’s Office said that the raids were carried out in the cities of Bogotá, Cartagena, and the towns of Barbosa and Caparrapí.
Those arrested will now appear before a judge where they will face charges of issuing contracts without the fulfilment of legal requirements, illicit enrichment, profiting from the issuing of contracts and falsifying public documents.
