A Delaware shell company linked to an associate of Mexico’s former Secretary of Public Security, Genaro Garcia Luna, owned luxury property in Texas valued at over $1 million, according to public records.
U.S. authorities have indicted Garcia Luna for drug trafficking and accepting bribes from Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel. His case reaches the highest echelons of the Mexican government and is among the most high-profile U.S. prosectuions in recent years.
Identifying a luxury real estate asset in Texas directly linked to Jonathan Alexis Weinberg Pinto — a known associate of Garcia Luna — via a Delaware-registered shell company, may provide leads to track down proceeds that were ultimately derived from alleged bribe payments.
Garcia Luna’s arrest
In December 2019, U.S. federal agents arrested Garcia Luna, charging him with drug trafficking and making false statements. A new indictment filed in July 2020 added an additional charge: “engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise.”
Between 2001 and 2012, while occupying high-ranking law enforcement positions, Garcia Luna received millions in bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel in exchange for protection for its drug trafficking activities, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release. Garcia Luna served as Mexico’s Secretary of Public Security from 2006 to 2012.
Since the indictment in 2019, Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (Fiscalía General de la República, FGR) has filed two additional criminal complaints accusing Garcia Luna of money laundering and corruption.
Garcia Luna’s private sector associates
Shortly after Garcia Luna’s arrest, Mexico’s financial intelligence unit (Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera, UIF) filed a complaint. It alleged that Garcia Luna and associates Mauricio Samuel Weinberg Lopez (Samuel Weinberg), Jonathan Alexis Weinberg Pinto (Jonathan Weinberg), and Natan Wancier, among others, created a network of front companies to move over $50 million through accounts in 11 countries, according to Univision.
The UIF asserts that some of these funds may have come from catels.
Samuel Weinberg, and his son Jonathan, have long operated in Mexico’s private security space, both as Mexico-based representatives of Israeli firms selling high-tech surveillance equipment to foreign governments, and as businessmen of their own. However, over the years, the two cultivated a close relationship with Garcia Luna’s family.
At the center of the alleged laundering network are two security firms controlled by the Weinbergs and their associate Natan Wancier — ICIT and Nunvav. Mexico’s UIF found that companies in the network deposited more than $200 million into the Mexican financial system, according to the UIF complaint reviewed by Univision.
While some deposits appear to have come from government contracts, the UIF alleges that others came from an “unknown origin” and may have been the result of bribe payments made to Garcia Luna.
Between 2013 and 2017, Nunvav Inc, received over $104 million from Mexico’s Interior Ministry (Secretaría de Gobernación). And between 2013-2016, the company received over $34 million from Mexico’s federal treasury (Tesorería de la Federación).
According to the UIF, Nunvav transfered funds to accounts in various countries, along with two additional security companies controlled by the Weinbergs — Icit Private Security Mexico, S.A. de C.V. and Icit Holding S.A. de C.V..
One of those companies, Icit Private Security Mexico, purportedly transferred a portion of the funds to a Sinaloa-based company called Operadora Grupo Gas Mart S de R.L. de C.V. This company then moved funds to a company owned by Garcia Luna in Mexico.
Fig 1: A network chart from Mexico’s UIF depicting money transfers from Mexican federal entities to companies associated with Natan Wancier, Samuel Weinberg, Jonathan Weinberg, and Genaro Garcia Luna.
The Weinbergs’ U.S. network
The Weinbergs have registered scores of companies in the U.S., Mexico, and Panama. These companies have been involved in various business pursuits, including serving as corporate vehicles to purchase luxury real estate.
Some of these properties appear to have been purchased for Garcia Luna’s explicit use, raising questions about the ultimate beneficiary:
- In October 2012, a Florida-registered company called 274 SIGB LLC, purchased real estate valued at over $3 million dollars in Golden Beach, Florida. 274 SIGB LLC was owned by a Panamanian company called NOA S.A., whose president is Natan Wancier, according to an investigation by C4ADS, a Washington D.C.-based organization that studies transnational security issues.
- Shortly after leaving office, Garcia Luna moved his family into that mansion in Golden Beach, according to a 2019 report by Univision. In an interview with Univision in March 2019, Jonathan Weinberg claimed that the house was rented to Garcia Luna and his family.
- From 2016 to 2018, Garcia Luna and his family lived in a second property in the Weinberg family’s South Florida portfolio, valued at $2.3 million.
- Garcia Luna is directly linked to an additional six properties via two companies for which he served as the Manager — Delta Integrator LLC and GL & Associates Consulting LLC.
The Sinaloa connection
According to Mexico’s UIF, Operadora Grupo Gas Mart S de R.L. de C.V. was one of the companies that allegedly served as a conduit to move money to Garcia Luna.
This company is part of a large Sinaloa-based conglomerate called Grupo Arhe, overseen by brothers named Juan José and Erick Arellano Hernández. The brothers, having started their business ventures in 2005, have built a corporate empire that comprises over 100 companies, operating in everything from hotel investments and construction firms to financial consultancies and gas stations, according to a recent two-part investigation published jointly by Mexican news outlets Quinto Elemento and RioDoce.
In 2015, UIF began investigating unusual transactions related to a company connected to the brothers. And in 2016, the UIF blocked the bank accounts of 116 individuals and companies connected to them and presented a criminal complaint to Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (formerly known as the Procuraduría General de la República, PGR) for money laundering.
Both the blocking of bank accounts and complaint were based on a 527 page report by the UIF detailing the irrational business activities and financial transactions carried out by Grupo Arhe, according to the Quinto Elemento/Rio Doce report.
At least one company that falls within the Grupo Arhe conglomerate was previously connected to Jonathan Weinberg.
Weinberg appears in a December 2019 corporate filing for a Sinaloa-based investment company called Inmobliaria Damari, S.A. de C.V. The document shows Jonathan Weinberg — along with several additional related parties that also previously appeared as related parties for Operadora Grupo Gas Mart — being removed as an apoderado, an individual with power of attorney. This occurred on the same day that Garcia Luna was arrested in Texas.
Fig. 2: Corporate filing from Mexico’s Public Registry of Commerce (Registro Público de Comercio) for Inmobiliaria Damari S.A. de C.V., showing Jonathan Alexis Weinberg Pinto — a known associate of Genaro Garcia Luna — being removed as an apoderado (an individual with power attorney).
While the corporate filings highlight when Weinberg had his power of attorney removed, it is unclear when he was first given those privileges.
Additionally, the same filing lists Erick and Juan José Arellano Hernández as being removed from the board of directors as secretary and president, respectively. However, at the time, the company was ultimately owned by the Arellano Hernández brothers via Erick and the brothers’ mother.
As of November 2020, the Arellano Hernández brothers had transferred majority ownership of Inmobiliaria Damari to Joaquin Antonio Perusquia Corres, a Sinaloa-based businessman and former spouse of Monica Guadalupe Weinberg Pinto, the sister of Jonathan Weinberg, according to corporate records from Mexico’s Public Registry of Commerce.
Jonathan Weinberg has also been linked to purchasing of real property in Mexico via Inmobiliaria Damari. In August 2017, Weinberg applied to formalize a real estate transaction in Cancún for a residential property valued at $950,000. The purchaser of the property was listed as Inmobiliaria Damari, according to the UIF investigation into Garcia Luna and reported by Quinto Elemento and RioDoce.
The UIF noted that Jonathan Weinberg’s role in applying to formalize the transaction was unusual, given that he was neither the buyer nor seller in the transaction.
Inmobiliaria Damari in the U.S.
Jonathan Weinberg is also connected to a U.S.-based company sharing a name with Inmobiliaria Damari.
In January 2016, a company called Inmobiliaria Damari LLC was registered in Delaware. Two years later, the company purchased property at 19 Blairs Way, The Woodlands, Texas for an undisclosed amount. The 2018 estimated market value — which included a close to 7,000 square foot house — was just over $992,000, according to third-party real estate aggregators.
At the time of sale, Jorge Allec Blanco — Jonathan Weinberg’s brother-in-law — was listed as the manager of Inmobiliaria Damari LLC.
Fig. 3: Top: Special Warranty Deed for the sale of property at 19 Blairs Way, The Woodlands, Texas between Toll Houston TX LLC and Inmobiliaria Damari LLC. Bottom: A Notice to Purchasers of Real Property Document for the sale of property between Toll Houston TX LLC and Inmobiliaria Damari LLC, showing Jorge Allec Blanco, the brother-in-law of Jonathan Weinberg, as the manager of Inmobiliaria Damari.
The property was sold on December 17, 2020 for close to $1.6 million, according to Nino Properties, a Houston-based property management firm. A deed that same day for the sale of property lists Jonathan Weinberg as the president of Inmobiliaria Damari LLC.
Fig. 4: A Warranty Deed with Vendor’s Lien document dated December 17, 2020 for the sale of property at 19 Blairs Way, The Woodlands, Texas. The document lists Jonathan Weinberg as the president of Inmobiliaria Damari LLC.
The address listed for Inmobiliaria Damari LLC was 1524 Island Blvd, Aventura, Florida. A Florida company directly linked to Jonathan Weinberg called VFST LLC is the current owner of a luxury penthouse at that address with an estimated 2021 market value of $3.2 million.
The connection to illicit activities
While there is no evidence that illicit proceeds were used to purchase the Texas luxury property, at least two factors raise questions as to the possible links between the purchase and sale of the property, and Garcia Luna:
- Shared Name: The Delaware shell company used to purchase the property in 2018 has the same name as the Sinaloa-based real estate investment company — Inmobiliaria Damari S.A. de C.V. — for which Jonathan Weinberg previously served as an apoderado.
- Shared Network: Inmobiliaria Damari S.A. de C.V. is linked — via several shared related parties — to Operadora Grupo Gas Mart, the Sinaloa company that Mexico’s UIF alleges funneled money to Garcia Luna.
More broadly, the use of Delaware-registered shell companies in holding real estate assets appears to be a hallmark of the Weinberg family’s investment portfolio. At least six companies registered in Delaware linked to the Weinbergs currently or previously owned a combined total of 14 properties in Miami-Dade County according to county property records
Follow the associates
Garcia Luna’s trial in New York is scheduled to begin on August 25, and has the potential to expose the inner-workings of cartel-related corruption at the highest ranks of the Mexican government.
While Garcia Luna’s closest associates, such as Samuel and Jonathan Weinberg, have not been publicly charged with any crimes, their corporate relationships with him raise serious questions as to their role in potentially facilitating the movement of bribe payments.
Real estate assets linked to the Weinbergs — some of which may remain anonymous via corporate vehicles registered in secrecy jurisdictions such as Delaware — could provide critical leads to uncover the proceeds of bribe payments ultimately destined for Garcia Luna.
