The Attorney General’s Office prosecuted three people for their alleged participation in irregularities detected in a maintenance contract for the fleet of Russian MI-17 helicopters of the National Army, whose value amounted to approximately 32 million dollars.

The defendants are Hugo Mora, former secretary general of the Ministry of Defense; Diego Manrique, former advisor to the Directorate of Capabilities Projection and Innovation of the same ministry; and Colonel Julián Rincón, assigned to the Aviation Brigade No. 32 of the National Army.

According to the investigation, led by a prosecutor from the Specialized Directorate against Corruption, Colonel Rincón had irregularly endorsed extensions for the submission of quotes, improperly participated in the pre-contractual stage and certified without support the experience of the company Vertol Systems Company, which had been discarded by the evaluation committee. He is also accused of modifying the financial studies and endorsing conditions that prevented verifying the true economic capacity of the contractor.

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For his part, Manrique would have intervened in the preparation and evaluation of the previous economic study, changing key financial requirements that allowed a proposal to be approved without establishing indicators such as liquidity, profitability and organizational capacity, required by current regulations.

Meanwhile, Mora, despite knowing about the irregularities and lack of compliance with legal requirements, would have signed contract No. 012 of 2024 on December 31, 2024 and authorized an advance of 50% of the total value, equivalent to more than 16 million dollars, disbursed on April 15, 2025 to an account of the contractor in the United States, even though the contract could not be executed due to non-compliance by the supplier.

Of the 32 million dollars of the contract, only activities for about 2.6 million were executed, and to date the remaining balance, more than 13 million dollars, has not been recovered.

The Prosecutor’s Office charged the three investigated, in accordance with their possible individual responsibility, with the crimes of ideological falsehood in a public document, undue interest in the conclusion of contracts, contract without compliance with legal requirements, influence peddling of a public servant, malfeasance by action, abuse of public office, procedural fraud and embezzlement by appropriation, charges that were not accepted.