A million-dollar fine imposed in 2020 on José Antolino Orozco Martínez, a former official related to the Master Scam, was not collected by officials of the López Obrador administration who still work in the Anti-Corruption and Good Government Secretariat.
Mexico City, October 30 (However).– The firm economic sanction against a senior official of the Government of Enrique Peña Nieto for the Master Scam corruption scheme, a fine of 105 million pesos was not collected by public servants of the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador who, despite this, are still active in the Anti-Corruption Secretariat of the President Claudia Sheinbaum.
The Area of Responsibilities of the Internal Control Body in the Welfare Secretariat dictated to José Antolino Orozco Martínezformer director of Geostatistics and Register of Beneficiaries of the Secretariat of Social Development (Sedesol) and former head of the Planning Unit of the Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (Sedatu), a fine of 105 million 186 thousand 739 pesos on August 5, 2020.
The administrative penalty was ordered for that amount because it was the amount that Sedesol paid excessively in 2015 to the Autonomous University of Zacatecas for the provision of the service “Initial diagnosis for the integration of the state registers of beneficiaries”, when the market price for this service was 65 million 333 thousand 260 pesos.
“Said public servant was the one who had the obligation to verify that the Autonomous University of Zacatecas fulfilled its declaration of having the technical, material and human capacity to perform the service. […] and by not doing so, he violated the provisions of article 8, section XXIV of the Federal Law of Administrative Responsibilities of Public Servants, being responsible for not having verified compliance with the Agreement by the Autonomous University of Zacatecas, as well as its consequences,” states the resolution of the Internal Control Body of the Ministry of Welfare, issued by the then head Baltazar Pahuamba Rosas.
Days after the resolution, on August 16, 2020, Gregorio Guerrero Pozas began working at the Secretariat of Public Service – now the Anti-Corruption and Good Government Secretariat – as head of the Internal Control Body (OIC) in Welfare, where he had the responsibility of supervising resources. He held the position until July 2021 and since then he has held different positions in that Secretariat.
During the administration of Gregorio Guerrero as head of the OIC in Welfare, and that of Miguel Ángel Cedillo Hernández as head of the Area of Responsibilities of the internal body, the collection of the fine from Orozco Martínez was not carried out.
Just as Gregorio Guerrero was hired in the Public Service after working in the Ministry of the Interior, on September 16, 2020, Miguel Ángel Cedillo Hernández, who also came from that department, became the head of the OIC Responsibilities Area in the Ministry of Welfare, a position he held until August 2021. Although his main function was to process procedures for administrative responsibilities, he did not take the necessary steps to apply the sanction. millionaire to Orozco Martínez.
However, both continue to work in the department led by Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez: Gregorio Guerrero was named head of the Internal Control Body in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Miguel Cedillo is head of the Specialized Area in Internal Control of the Welfare Branch, according to his asset declaration updated in May of this year; The remuneration directory of the Anti-Corruption and Good Government Secretariat also describes his position as head of the Complaints and Investigations Area.
Guerrero Pozas and Cedillo Hernández are close to the general coordinator of Internal Control Bodies of the Anti-Corruption Secretariat, Perla Amorene Anaya Díaz, who came to the position by appointment of Secretary Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez. Anaya Díaz in the OIC of the Tax Administration Service (SAT) and the Secretary of Economy when the owner was precisely Buenrostro Sánchez.
Information that the Anti-Corruption Secretariat made transparent at the beginning of October 2025 through the transparency request with folio 340026500124225 proves that the federal Government did not collect the million-dollar penalty imposed on former Sedesol worker José Antolino Orozco since the Internal Control Body of the Welfare Secretariat did not process it in time before the SAT.
Between July and September 2024, four years after the fine was issued and its collection was not requested, the then head of the Area of Specialization in responsibilities in the Welfare Branch, Mariana Rosas Pacheco, asked the Decentralized Collection Administrator of Hidalgo “1” of the SAT to collect the million-dollar penalty, but he responded that the deadline to manage it had already expired.
“It is observed that the resolution sent is not within the minimum period of one year, so it does not comply with the provisions of rule 2.1.1 of the Miscellaneous Fiscal Resolution for 2024,” responded Erika Morales Avilés, head of the Deconcentrated Body in an official letter dated August 8, 2024.
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However asked the Anti-Corruption and Good Government Secretariat if it has investigated or will investigate the actions of the officials who are still active and did not comply with the procedures to collect the million-dollar fine from José Antolino Orozco during the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador; He also asked if he would initiate another procedure to seek payment of that fine, but until the closing of this edition he did not receive a response.
Antolino Orozco and the Master Scam
In September 2021, a year after the Internal Control Body in the Ministry of Welfare fined Orozco Martínez more than 105 million pesos, the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) arrested him for the crime of diversion of public resources, related to the corruption scheme known as the Master Scam.
José Antolino Orozco Martínez was one of the former federal officials who revealed in statements to the FGR in May 2019 how workers from the Government of Enrique Peña Nieto operated to extract and divert resources from the budget of Sedesol and Sedatu.
In the text “Looting in nine steps” prepared by the Tojil organizationwho litigates corruption cases, it is stated that, together with Marco Salvador Ibarra Infante, Orozco Martínez described how Emilio Zebadúa, former Senior Sedesol officer, “and his criminal group” took advantage of a legal exception to sign agreements and award contracts without bidding with public universities. These universities, in turn, distributed the money among front companies, proxies or various beneficiaries. This is how the looting scheme operated for years.
Antolino Orozco also declared to the FGR that the former head of Sedesol and Sedatu, Rosario Robles, was aware of the diversion of resources. The official was arrested for the crime of improper exercise of public service, but was released in 2023 and was acquitted in 2024.
A review of the agreements signed by Sedesol and Sedatu in which the Superior Audit of the Federation carried out by the newspaper Political Animal In 2019 it was shown that José Antolino Orozco signed at least one contract with Sedesol and the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico in 2013; as well as four agreements with the Polytechnic University of Chiapas and three with the Polytechnic University of Quintana Roo and Sedatu.
In 2024, Rosario Robles’ former collaborator was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the crimes of diversion of public resources and organized crime, as was María de la Luz Vargas Vargas, former director of Sedesol’s Register Integration; and the representative of the Feyray Real Estate company, Luis Antonio Valenciano Zapata, in which was the first conviction for the Master Scam.
The diary Millennium reported in February 2025 that Orozco Martínez managed to change his precautionary measure to house arrest.
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