Real Estate Fraud Scheme Exposed in Mérida’s Legal System

A Mérida resident, fearing the loss of her home, has filed a new complaint alleging real estate fraud. The individuals involved are reportedly the same as those implicated in prior cases, both resolved and ongoing. This complaint revives claims of an illegal network engaged in property dispossession. The case file also reveals the involvement of a lawyer previously arrested for forgery. The same law firm and judge, now a member of the State Judiciary Council, are also mentioned, both having previously ruled against property owners.

The complainant, 65-year-old Eddy Milly A.S., is facing a commercial lawsuit over an alleged debt of $980,000. A promissory note dated February 1, 2019, due on January 31, 2021, was presented as evidence.

The note was issued to Arsenio Irisel Alcocer López, who transferred it to lawyer Shuberth Jesús Baz Durán, the plaintiff in the lawsuit. The case was heard in Mérida's First Commercial Court, then presided over by Claudia Elena Pedrera Irabién, now a counselor of the State Judiciary Council. The judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff, ordering the defendant to pay the claimed amount plus interest. The judge also ordered the foreclosure sale of the defendant's house to cover the payment.

Eddy Milly, who has provided documents to support her claims, insists she has never met Arsenio Irisel Alcocer and has never borrowed money from him. She first met lawyer Baz Durán, a graphology and fingerprint analysis expert, when she received the court notice on January 9, 2023. She also doesn't recognize the signature on the promissory note as hers. She suspects it was forged, using a lost voter ID card which she replaced in February 2021.

The lost ID is the one presented by the plaintiff in the lawsuit. While Judge Pedrera has issued a ruling, the case remains unresolved as the defendant has filed for protection and lodged a complaint with the State Attorney General's Office. The complaint implicates the court clerk of the First Commercial Court for allegedly falsifying court records, thereby enabling procedural fraud.

Interestingly, in a notice sent to the State Attorney General's Office on March 9, 2023, former Judge Pedrera Irabién stated that lawyer Baz Durán had granted "powers mentioned in Articles 1069 and 1390 Bis 21 of the Commercial Code" to two law graduates at the start of a preliminary hearing. One of these graduates was Sergio Alberto Santana Piña.