Property of former congressman accused of corruption seized

The Office of the Attorney General of the Nation occupied three assets that would belong to former Congressman Manuel Antonio Carebilla Cuellar, which would be in the name of his permanent partner and would have been acquired while he served as a representative to the Chamber for Amazonas.

“The properties located in Bogotá would have been acquired while Carebilla Cuéllar served as representative to the Chamber for Amazonas, for two consecutive periods, between 2006 and 2014,” said the accusing entity.

The Specialized Directorate for Extinction of Property Rights occupied the three assets, valued at more than 2,000 million pesos, in proceedings carried out in the capital of the country. The properties were made available to the Sociedad de Activos Especiales (SAE) for their administration.

As pointed out by the Prosecutor’s Office in November 2017, the Supreme Court of Justice designated the suspended governor of Amazonas as a “merchant” in its Legislative Work Unit (UTL) when he was a representative to the Chamber.

“He turned his work team into a company in which he took the opportunity to handle money that he only used for his own benefit”, as determined by the high court when it found him guilty of the crimes of embezzlement, improper bribery, ideological falsehood in a public document aggravated by the use and concussion.

The former official was sentenced to a sentence of 14 years 7 months in prison, as well as a fine of 648 minimum wages of fine and $ 611,437,246 for compensation for damages. According to the Court’s decision, Carebilla Cuéllar’s work in Congress was completely contrary to his legislative duties.

“Tasks that he should have praised, especially when he was one of the only two Representatives of the Amazon community in the legislative branch,” explained the Court.

According to the investigation carried out by the high court, the subject “offered public offices for sale to the highest bidder, formally appointed people who never performed their duties and, nevertheless, received emoluments from those who benefited those; falsely certified fulfillment of tasks that they never performed; he unduly requested his de facto subordinates to pay the obligations contracted by him ‘through an intermediary’”.

In addition, they found that the former representative of the Amazon asked his officials for money to fix the official car assigned to him in Congress and that he also demanded a fee to finance the expenses of his political campaign in the 2007 local elections in Amazonas.

On the other hand, it pointed out that the man’s conduct was “conduct that dishonored the good name and exercise of legislative work, which is why the crimes for which he is convicted were carried out with the intention and purpose of selling public service, altering the truth, of appropriating money from the State as well as requesting undue profits, abusing their position and their functions ”.

Finally, it was concluded that his public position served him to pay political favors and campaign promises, “allowing even members of a single family to inherit the positions once they retired from it. In the pre-electoral period, it signed a pact to commit salaries assigned to the servants that made it up, even with people disqualified from holding public office. Behavior that proves the projected lucrative purpose and reveals the lack of decorum with public affairs ”.