Lottery staff partied at beach hotels with illegal winnings

Details of a plot to manipulate winning tickets in the National  Charity  Lottery (LNB) in which members of a participating network went to beach hotels to celebrate their “winnings” were revealed by prosecutors in a Guarantee Court hearing.

The court decreed the provisional arrest of Yamilka Camarena, who until recently was the head of Lottery book delivery, and Alejandra Bonilla, who served as provincial director of the entity.

Precautionary measures were imposed on Franklin De Gracia, former director of operations of the LNB, and Miguel Ángel Peña. They are prohibited from leaving the country and must report on Monday and Friday of each week, and they cannot approach the Lottery or ticket holders.

All are being investigated for allegations of embezzlement.

According to the investigation of the prosecution, when they had the prizes in their hands, the defendants went to celebrate at beach hotels. They had already been left with $25,000, a figure that could be higher.

Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office began an investigation in March for alleged corruption in the collection of the chances and winning tickets but the network of officials and individuals that illegally collected them continued to operate.

According to the investigation, the former LNB passbook delivery chief, Yamilka Camarena, retained part of the content of the chance books and tickets that were to be sent to the interior of the country and to Darien along with the rest of the group, she kept the winning tickets and handed them over to third parties, who made them effective and then distributed the profits.

In the investigation, which began as a result of an anonymous complaint, the prosecution

interviewed officials of the institution, who reported that Yamilka Camarena modified the delivery system for chances and tickets, which usually had to be delivered in sealed suitcases to the different Lottery agencies. In interviews, officials confirmed that the system did not meet security requirements, but that the guidelines were maintained.

The Public Ministry also attributes responsibility to the former provincial director of the LNB, Alejandra Bonilla, whom it points out as being part of the network that extracted and retained the chances and tickets.

As the prosecutor explained, the scheme also had the collaboration of Franklin De Gracia, who was the entity’s chief of operations.

Among the members of the network were Miguel Peña, Omar López, and Antonio Peña, in charge of changing the tickets and chances to later collect a commission.

Through an authorized telephone interception, the prosecution established that one of the implicated persons contacted personnel who work in the Lottery so that they would not give details to the authorities about the ticket delivery system or provide documentation.

According to the prosecutor, the network stole at least $25,000 in tickets and winning chances. On some occasions, winnings could range from $1,000 to $1,800 per drawing.

The guarantee judge applied precautionary measures to Franklin De Gracia and Miguel Peña. They must report on Monday and Friday of each week, they are prohibited from leaving the country without judicial authorization and they cannot approach the Lottery offices or ticket holders.

The prosecutor Itzel Koo appealed the precautionary measures applied to De Gracia and Peña, considering that they can evade the action of justice and because there is a risk of destruction of evidence.

Koo said that it is “a serious crime” that carries a prison sentence of more than four years, so the recommended precautionary measure is preventive detention. The prosecutor did not rule out the linking of other people to the network