Ghostly company contributed to Daniel Quintero campaign

Por EL COLOMBIANOLa firma que figura como la que más recursos aportó a la campaña que llevó a Daniel Quintero Calle a la Alcaldía de Medellín está llena de tantos interrogantes y posibles irregularidades que bien podrían los organismos de investigación darle una revisada para ver si todo está en orden. Empezando porque ha tenido una vida fantasmal: nació hace cinco años, mantuvo una existencia apenas latente y de manera inusitada creció justo en la coyuntura de las elecciones de 2019 y en el primer año de esta administración.

It is called Celeste Inversiones SAS, and was officially formed on October 12, 2016, according to the registration that rests in the Medellín Chamber of Commerce for Antioquia, with a capital of just one million pesos.

According to the constitution papers, its corporate purpose is "indeterminate" and "as such can perform any type of lawful economic activity in Colombia and abroad."However, in the records it does not appear that you have carried out any type of activity.

In addition, the Colombian sought those who have figured as their owners and detected substantial inconsistencies in their versions and many silences (see annexed note).

A year after its creation, the company had a 180 degree turn, because it not only changed ownership, but of address.

Act No. 6 of October 2, 2017, in which the conclusions of the Board of the little nourished Shareholders'TWELUST COMPANY -, it is stated that these transferred all of the shares to Víctor Hernán Velásquez López, who in turn began to serve as a legal representative.

For 2018, the operational results, that is, the profits from the activity developed by the firm, was just over 23 million pesos, according to the data it provided the following year for the renewal of the Mercantile Registry.

And it is curious that in 2019, in the heat of the local political contest that faced 15 candidates, Celeste appeared donating 22.5 million in money and 13 million in kind to the independent movement campaign, led by Quintero and who finally won.

That is to say, according to what he registers in his papers, the Celeste company donated to the Quintero campaign all the money that earned the previous year and hound another 12.5 million pesos to become the contributor of more than 10%of the 299 million pesos that entered the campaign of independents for donations and contributions from individuals.What explanation can a company have everything that earns and more to a political campaign?

The convulsive pre -election atmosphere seemed well to Celeste SAS investments, because in that 2019 (the elections were in October of that year) its turnover jumped from 350 million pesos to 4,195 million pesos and a usefulness of 496 million pesos, whichIt would have obtained for the transport of passengers and load, which can be verified by reviewing the form of the Single Business and Social Registry (Rues) (see facsimile).In 2020, according to the same source, he sold services for 3,647 million pesos (13 percent less than the previous year), with an operational utility - that derives from its main activities - of 172 million pesos, but without profitsin the end.

The previous figures attract attention and the question of how it reached them if it could not have mobilized passengers or load, as reported in papers, because it is not enabled before the Ministry of Transportation to provide the services described, according to the Colombian in thePublic Information Platforms.

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He also investigated among the transporters for the company's reputation, but union leaders said they did not know her.

Likewise, concerns arise about why the CNE databases appears the contribution in kind of celestial SAS investments, but it is not referenced in the “transport and mail” form.

Experts on accounting and tax issues consulted by the Colombian explained that companies with these characteristics are usually facade or 'vehicle companies', that is, they have no real or verifiable economic activity, and are used for triangulation of income or payments, that is,They allow to erase the traceability of the operations and their final beneficiaries.However, they warn that only competent authorities can prove this possible irregularity.

In addition, experts add, the entry of greater sums of money may be due to the fact that the company is used for movements of high amounts in cash.

This newspaper visited the two headquarters that SAS investments has reported in its five years of history.The first is a house in the Robledo Clara neighborhood.It is reached by a labyrinthine street and then climbing a little for steep and narrow scales.The property does not even have visible nomenclature and to know the direction it is time to steep the energy counter.The sector is mostly 1 and 2 strata;Nobody for those distress, not even neighbors who said they were old, learned that a company worked there.

The current headquarters is on a fifth floor, in the first stage of Altos de Calasanz, in the Calazanía sector, surrounded by the El Pesebre neighborhood.

It is worth remembering that these are homes granted by the Mayor's Office of Medellín for 16 years for relocated families of the surrounding area when entering the West tunnel, as well as displaced by violence and victims of natural tragedies.

The domicile, in stratum 2 and with a rustic facade, does not seem to fit with a firm that invoices several billions of pesos a year and in an economic field that, unlike technological companies, requires a deployment of personnel and installed capacity.

This Friday, on a visit to verify the information, El Colombian journalists asked several inhabitants of these buildings and none gave their neighborhood reason with the aforementioned company.Nor was there on the apartment door or notice with the identity of the same and the visible furniture was housing, not office.

To complete, who opened and identified himself as the son of Velásquez López, replied that he did not ask if he knew a firm called Celeste Inversiones SAS.

In the name of the company there were also no offices or parking lots for trucks or cars.In the guild of cargo and passenger transporters, consulted by this newspaper, they are complete strangers.