Rodrigo Lebois Mateos, founder and former president of the Board of Directors of Unifin—and whose daughter was arrested for the crime of fraud when she was part of that company—acquired apartments and shopping centers in his name and paper companies. Miami valued at 7 million 930 thousand dollars.
The businessman, who allegedly manipulated Unifin’s financial statements to obtain resources and increase the confidence of investors, rating agencies and creditors, made the purchase of 5 luxurious exclusive apartments in the tourist destination used by Mexicans to invest in properties, reveals documentation in the possession of Forbes Mexico.
Lee: AT&T would not be an investor in Mexico without commercial integration: Mónica Aspe
Today the 5 apartments have a market value of 2 million 728 thousand dollars, according to documents that show that Rodrigo Lebois Mateos operated from Presidente Masaryk in the Polanco neighborhood in Mexico City.
Another of the apartments is valued at 3 million 477 thousand dollars and was purchased through Fisher Island 2031, INC, a paper company created by Rodrigo Lebois Mateos.
A pair of shopping centers, whose market price is 867 thousand dollars, were acquired through Impulse Group, INC. This is another paper company from the owner of Unifin, it was created in Florida to do that and other financial operations.
The founder of Unifin spent $865,000 to own another property in Miami, which was purchased in an operation involving the firm Collage Films, INC.
The Mexican businessman created another pair of paper companies known as Citation VII Leasing Corp and Growtha Loquat LLC. In a review carried out, no financial operations were found through these firms.
Read: Biden’s vision is not to build walls, says US ambassador
The financial operation used by Rodrigo Lebois Mateos to obtain properties in Miami is very similar to that carried out by Rafael Antonio Olvera Amezcua, owner of Ficrea and who was arrested in Texas by Interpol agents on May 29, 2019.
The owner of Ficrea, who bought apartments in Miami with money from savers, is imprisoned in the Reclusorio Sur in Mexico City for a series of legal proceedings filed by thousands of defrauded people.
Rafael Antonio Olvera Amezcua took refuge in Miami after the intervention of the popular financial society (Sofipo) in November 2014. That is, he defrauded all his clients.
Unifin, which once had more than $1.5 billion in assets and a debt of $1 billion, is today bankrupt and without Rodrigo Lebois Mateos at the helm.
The company had 500 employees hired, 7 thousand square meters of offices in 12 cities in Mexico. If Unifin were a bank, it would be the sixth largest in the country.
Rodrigo Lebois Mateos and Rafael Antonio Olvera Amezcua liked cars, they even sponsored teams in competitions.
The first detainee in the Unifin case
On December 12, 2024, Almudena Lebois Ocejo, former director of Unifin and daughter of Rodrigo Lebois Mateos, was arrested in Mexico City allegedly for the crime of fraud.
Although the file in the National Detention Registry of the Secretariat of Citizen Security does not explain or detail the reasons for the capture, sources from the Security Cabinet have revealed that he is accused of the crime of fraud.
Almudena Lebois Ocejo served on the Unifin Board until February 2022, the year in which the financial company stopped paying its creditors, citing lack of liquidity.
Read: ASA forgives millionaire debt to Mexico City International Airport
In January 2023, the First District Court for Commercial Bankruptcy of Mexico City decided to declare the company in bankruptcy status.
His father, Rodrigo Lebois Mateos, resigned from the management of Unifin in July 2024, after it was revealed in the media that, together with former executives of the company and his close circle, he activated a network of at least 15 companies with which he would supposedly request credit from the company. Unifin itself for its own enrichment.
In parallel, he manipulated financial statements to obtain resources and increase the confidence of investors, rating agencies and creditors.
Regarding his current whereabouts, family friends reported that Rodrigo Lebois Mateos lives in Madrid, a Spanish city chosen by Mexicans to live without being bothered.
A Unifin partner in the Senate of the Republic
In September 2023, Unifin presented the Proposal to restructure and update the business plan detailing that Lumo Financiera del Centro is one of its main clients, so it would launch exhaustive discussions to “accelerate and maximize collections.”
Lumo Financiera del Centro, Unifin’s main client, has been immersed in complaints for simulation of competition and irregular hiring.
Luis Humberto Montaño García, majority shareholder of Lumo Financiera del Centro, became the Executive Research Coordinator at the Belisario Domínguez Institute of the Senate of the Republic.
It was in that legislature when Luis Humberto Montaño García entered the legislative chamber, after in recent years he has made his activism known in favor of Morena.
The Executive Research Coordinator at the Belisario Domínguez Institute of the Senate tried to get a seat by relative majority in the last electoral process, but was ruled out by the citizens.
Luis Montaño was positioned as one of the main promoters of the vote in favor of Claudia Sheinbaum in the State of Mexico and according to various testimonies, the owner of Lumo boasts of his closeness with Adán Augusto López, who appointed him to the position he currently holds. along with other political operators, after the dismissal of a group of researchers.
Read: December season triggers imports of Norwegian cod to Mexico
In December 2023, when the businessman sought to become a senator, he assured that “it is time for citizens without ambitions”
In September of that same year, the Internal Control Body of the INE announced that it was investigating the officials who gave a contract to Lumo Financiera del Centro, whose validity was extended despite the nullity that said authority had required.
In mid-2021, it was announced that Lumo Financiera del Centro was under investigation by the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Mexico (FGJEM), after in 2019 it competed against Lease and Fleet Solutions, a company that won a leasing agreement. for 32 months with which it shares contact numbers and financial statements signed by Carlos Martínez Uribe, as accountant and legal representative.
The investigations into the simulation of competition, as well as the direct allocations in favor of the lessor, were brought to the Transparency and Anti-Corruption Commission of the Chamber of Deputies by members of National Action, only in March 2023.
Between 2019 and 2023, Luis Humberto Montaño García obtained 8 billion pesos from agreements via the federal government and Mexico City.
Do you like to get informed through Google News? Follow our Showcase to have the best stories
