Emilio Tapia spoke for the first time about Population Centers

The businessman Emilio José Tapia, who was cited as a witness in the case of the ICT Ministry and the Temporary Union Centros Poblados, appeared on Wednesday before the sixth delegate prosecutor to the Council of State with disciplinary judging functions, Antonio José Núñez.

Although this case was uncovered in mid-2021 and Tapia was sent to prison in September, only so far are his first statements about his participation in the temporary union known. The hearing was delayed several times, with all kinds of excuses and inconveniences.

For example, Tapia was summoned last February to appear before the Attorney General's Office for the same case, but on the same day of the hearing he sent a letter with a handwritten dragonist from La Picota, stating that “I cannot attend today's hearing due to health problems due to the vaccine and this has me with discomfort.”

On this occasion, Prosecutor Núñez had to wait two hours for Tapia to connect, as there are connectivity problems in Picaleña. Finally, the defendant for the alleged falsification of insurance policies was able to connect through a corporate cell phone of one of his guards.

Among other things, Tapia assured that Juan José Laverde, from the insurance agency, had been trusted in the word of Juan José Laverde, who would obtain compliance policies. However, with little time left before the deadline for delivery of requirements was met, Laverde failed and tried to request an additional term from MinTIC, but the portfolio did not grant it.

After Laverde spoke with another policyholder, he informed Tapia that he put several conditions, including management fees. Seeing themselves short of time, they accepted the conditions as long as there were no further delays.

The Prosecutor's Office points out that the contract and the delivery of the advance payment of 70 billion pesos, which took place in July 2020, were given policies from Banco Itaú that gave them the necessary points to win the call; it was later learned that these documents were false. The businessman assured that he did not suspect that the guarantee was irregular.

At the beginning of March, following the scandal of prisoners who could be influencing from their detention centers and receiving additional benefits from INPEC, it was decided that Emilio Tapia should be transferred from La Picota in Bogotá to the Picaleña Prison in Ibagué.

Tapia tried to delay this transfer with a false positive covid-19 test, which would force him to quarantine for the protection of the other prisoners of liberty and the staff of Inpec. However, the fraud was discovered — Tapia had not been released from prison and there was no way that the test had been taken inside — so he was transferred.

Then, on March 16, the prosecutor in charge of the Centros Poblados case had asked the new director of INPEC that the businessman be transferred back to La Picota. According to the prosecutor, this change of prison affects the process of reinstatement, since Tapia would not be able to continue doing the process, Blu Radio revealed.

There is still no response to this request, so Tapia is still being held in Picaleña and from there he made his statement this Wednesday.

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