Corruption in Mexico


SONORA GOVERNMENT


Sonora State Police Accomplice to Real Estate Fraud


Local business owner uses kidnapping, cyberstalking to cover up murder, now attempting to commit real estate fraud

Author: ME Williamson

Posted: 24 November 2020



SolarSnap, a solar manufacturer and retailer as well as a maquiladora, had become the target of two local businessmen bent on taking over the company's property in the Hermosillo Industrial Park at any cost. As a result of this quest, Monica Grijlava Haro and her brother Luis Grijalva Haro have done everything in their power to destroy the company and damage the reputation of its founder, Mark Williamson. Along the way, the duo has committed embezzlement, kidnapping, attempted murder, cyberstalking and now real estate fraud.

Why would this brother and sister combo go to any lengths to illegally seize control of SolarSnap's real estate holdings and eliminate this promising and fast-growing solar energy product company?

Most recently, Monica Gamez Grijalva, an acquaintance and possibly family member, was set to kidnap Mr. Williamson and then attack and close the SolarSnap retail store, formerly located in the San Benito neighborhood of Hermosillo.








Monica Gamez Grijalva






To understand the motives of these individuals, we must go back to November 2017.

At that time, the new company had developed retail and manufacturing divisions. The retail division was completing its first year and had sold more than P3 million worth of solar power installations. The grand opening of the store had been held in November of the previous year and business was booming.








SolarSnap store grand opening, November 2016.






Williamson and company employees, the invisible undercurrents at SolarSnap would soon become a tidal wave of disaster. Williamson had noticed anomalies in the accounting. Money was disappearing from the company's bank accounts at an alarming rate, and he was investigating evidence of embezzlement. His partner Gonsalo Dojaque Acuña and his wife Monica Grijalva Harro were heavily implicated.

"With a startup, you really notice when P1 million pesos disappears from your bank balances over a fairly short period of time," said Mr. "I had previous problems with my partner as such and I started digging and noticed a pattern. I thought we could work things out, but I think Gonsalo simply had too many demons to fight."

Dojaque were struggling may have included another business where he was associated called Miditec. Miditec was a company that was failing miserably and struggling just to stay afloat. The main source of revenue for Miditec had been a large CFE contract secured by Dojaque to produce payment ATMs. However, CFE had pulled out of the deal, and in 2015 suddenly withdrew its contract with Miditec. The family-owned business quickly began to struggle and was soon almost out of cash.

"I think it's pretty obvious what happened. My partner had another partnership in a company in his default and his wife was the accountant in both companies. She was also the sister of the other owner of the company that partnered with Mr. They got desperate and started taking money out of SolarSnap's bank accounts, putting it into Miditec's bank account," said Mr.

Williamson intervened and terminated accountant Monica Grijalva Harro of SolarSnap in October 2017, but the move had come too late to stop the misappropriation of more than P4 million.

Williamson had discovered that a complex money laundering operation had been built by Mr. Dojaque and his wife over the past 24 months, involving three leading companies, Gesta, Gilla and Greenfox. None of these companies produced any products or had any real employees, but were used to launder money away from SolarSnap and into Miditec's coffers.

"It makes me very angry that millions of pesos of our money that was supposed to go to the research and development of our new solar panel went to feed Miditec's dying dinosaur," said Mr.

Dojaque got the best of him and in November 2017 he committed suicide. His death quickly sparked a war between Miditec and SolarSnap.

"The nightmare of suddenly losing my business partner during a financial investigation turned into a major disaster for our company when Mrs.

The day after her husband's death, while others were grieving at the funeral, she intercepted the company's inventory arriving at an airport terminal valued at $150,000 pesos, disrupting a major company project. Grijalva Harro, representing herself as the company's spokesperson, began calling SolarSnap employees and informed them that they were all fired.

He then conspired with two store sales workers, Julian Leon Torua and Fabian Karam Robles, to steal store credit contracts valued at $300,000 pesos and collect the debts directly from customers. She also contacted an electrical contractor, Santos Bonilla, and conspired with him to steal a CFE inspection report from CFE's offices which then blocked SolarSnap's facility located in Parque Industrial to gain access to CFE's electrical grid for their new plant. Finally, Ms. Grijalva Harro used her deceased husband's banking credentials and Internet access codes to block SolarSnap's bank accounts.

"She was not an employee or a board member. She had no legal status within the company. She started attacking SolarSnap before her husband's body was cold," said Mr.

The Grijalvas continued an intense effort to cover their financial tracks, hide evidence and do everything possible to destroy the very company where they had embezzled their livelihood for the past 4 years.

Martinez, a store worker, stayed on board with the company along with some other workers and went to work with Mr. The police went after Julian Leon Torua and Fabian Karam Robles, recovering the stolen store contracts. A new company website was launched at solarsnap.com and many internal infrastructure upgrades were completed. Six months later, the major issues had been resolved and the company planned a relaunch of its store. A three-month promotion was planned to run 100-per-month commercials on Megacable starting at the end of 2018. A local promotion company was hired and a 20-second commercial was released to air around Christmas time.

"We had received $9 million pesos from the Mexican government in 2015/2016 and had enjoyed our best retail sales performance in 2017 with $3.3 million pesos in sales revenue. 30 investors have put in approximately $4 million pesos since 2014. Our solar panel invention was set to go into production soon and is 30% more energy efficient than conventional panels due to a special liquid cooling system that I invented and patented. We conduct a survey after every installation project, and have received an average score of 9.2 on a scale of 1 to 10 with our survey questions on the quality of our installation work. We are proud of our little startup and we are not going to let a small controversy kill our company, not even over a $4 million peso embezzlement," said Mr.

If the Grijalvas were angry about SolarSnap's survival, they would be outraged when they discovered that the company would announce the relaunch of its store during the Christmas vacations. Despite their best and most concerted efforts, the company had continued to sail forward.

They came up with another plot.

In their latest mechination they would send someone on SolarSnap to buy solar panels posing as a customer. The customer would appear legitimate and pretend to buy solar equipment. But the solar panel installation would be sabotaged and never reach completion. The project was a setup to attack SolarSnap and its workers.

Enter Monica Gamez Grijalva. In October 2018, she walked into the SolarSnap San Benito store and dropped off cash for a solar panel installation project on her father's San Pedro ranch. SolarSnap workers had no idea she was working with the Grijalvas or what they had in store for the company.

A week later, SolarSnap workers began work on the ranch on the 45th solar panel installation project. However, shortly thereafter, the solar panels began to disappear from the job site before they could be placed on the structures.

"Monica Gamez contacted me on Whatsapp a few weeks after we had started delivering solar panels. She told me that solar panels were missing. The circumstances seemed very suspicious to me," said Mr. "I even suggested the possibility that maybe she had taken them, in the same Whatsapp conversation. She didn't deny it."








Whatsapp Between Monica Gamez Grijalva and Mark Williamson






The project's working environment quickly became impossible and nightmarish. The client requested that the project be modified to share electricity with his home, located near the ranch business. SolarSnap workers agreed to the request and installed a 60-meter trench. However, the cable casing material was insufficient for the customer, so Jose Gamez demanded that the trench be reduced and the vinyl pipe be replaced with PVC.

"Between change requests, robberies and harassment we were never going to finish this project. Then they kidnapped us. They locked us up on their ranch!"

On December 6, 2018, the crew consisting of 2 workers, Mark Williamson and another worker [name omitted for security reasons], were detained by Jose and Magda Gamez for unknown reasons. A large burglary door had been suddenly closed illegally detaining the workers and their vehicle. They would not allow the workers to leave and made unclear and unspecified demands.

After contacting the police and several hours later a negotiated agreement was reached to allow the workers to leave, but Gamez's people could stay behind, enter SolarSnap's factory storage and take whatever they wanted. Williamson drove straight to the police station and filed a kidnapping and stalking complaint with the public prosecutor a few days later. Jose Gamez and his wife took their thugs into the SolarSnap store, stalked and threatened employees and turned off the store's electricity.

Enter the hard-working corrupt Public Minister, Karla Yadira Brockman Salazar. Continuing the Grijalva Harro scheme to destroy the company, cover up evidence of embezzlement and steal SolarSnap's real estate, the Gamez Grijalva family now concocted a story of theft that SolarSnap workers had somehow illegally removed solar panels from the job site a month earlier during routine installation work.








Corrupt Public Minister Worker Karla Yadira Brockman Salazar






Brockman Salazar, fabricated a case that SolarSnap completed the installation of solar panel 45 on November 22, 2018 (3 weeks prior to the kidnapping). Then, the next day, on Friday, November 23, 2018, Mark Williamson with Ms. Martinez entered the Gamez ranch in the company mini-van, alone, and removed the entire installation complete and operational, in just a few hours. Never to return again. Then, neither the Gamez workers nor any family member noticed the 45 solar panels missing for almost 1 month.

This would require the disposal of 1.5 metric tons of material, which would include 900 kilograms of solar panels and 7 trips in the company van. Such an undertaking would take several days and approximately 10 return trips. In addition, the holes would have to be filled and the tubes removed. Obviously, the installation work was never allowed to finish and this story was a lie invented by Monica Gamez Grijlava and corrupt government workers.

"The logistical impossibility makes the story ridiculous and laughable. The effort would require a minimum of 7 trips to San Pedro in the company vehicle and approximately 8-12 days of work, with 3-4 workers. There would be demonstrable evidence of such an undertaking, but, apparently, you don't need evidence or even a sane or rational story to accuse someone of wrongdoing in Mexico. You just need money, or maybe money that you stole from SolarSnap," said Mr.

Where was Ms. Martinez on this day? According to several witnesses, 2 customers, phone records and internet ISP records, on the morning of November 23, 2018 she was working in the San Benito store with a sales support person who did not leave until 2:00 PM in the afternoon. She received several customers at the store to provide sales quotes. Signed witness statements, time clock information, and video evidence conclusively demonstrate that Ms. Martinez was in San Benito working at the SolarSnap store on the morning of November 23, 2018. She could not have been in San Pedro. The case against her appears to be unprovable and false.

Also, at the time, this was an open job site. One cannot steal work materials that are in the process of being installed as proving such a case would be extremely impractical. The solar panels had not yet been installed or activated according to CFE records.

"Monica Gamez and Ms. Brockamn Salazar should have picked another day to make up their farcical story," stated Mr.

Apparently, those conducting the investigation of the case failed to investigate solar energy installations that are linked to the CFE grid. These installations require CFE to install a bi-directional meter and then activate the installation. This has not yet been done by SolarSnap or anyone else.

Even the statements of the police who helped free the kidnapped workers on December 6, 2018 are apparently being ignored by Ms.

"Monica Gamez Grijlava bragged to me at a mediation meeting in December that she had paid extra money to Ms. "I began to wonder what would inspire such hatred and aggression from this client."

The Christmas promotional commercial began running just the week before, but was quickly overshadowed by the scandalous and defamatory postings by Monica Gamez Grijalva, mainly on Facebook.








Hateful and extremely defamatory attack on SolarSnap and its two key employees






The money was spent promoting hatred of SolarSnap on Facebook and other Internet sites. Ms. Gamez Grijalva's fabricated false accusations were posted and read by a significant percentage of the hermosilla and sonoran population. Store morale dropped dramatically and employees felt fear and embarrassment.

Most employees and workers quit out of fear as a result of the stalking, cyberstalking and constant phone calls in the first week after Gamez's assault began. A team of people, perhaps as many as 10 or more people, worked vigorously to destroy the SolarSnap store and its reputation. Facebook's reputation and local reputation that had been carefully built up over 5 years was greatly diminished over just two months.

That's when Mr. Williamson put it together: the Grijalva Haro's were working with the Gamez Grijalva people. On further investigation it was discovered that the same people who had worked to bring down SolarSnap after the death of Gonsalo Dojaque Acuña were now working with Monica Gamez Grijalva.

In fact, Santos Bonilla who had worked with Monica Grijalva Harro and stolen the inspection report from CFE offices in November 2017 started making insulting and derogatory internet posts about Mark Williamson and the SolarSnap company in December 2018, exactly when Monica Gamez was lashing out on Facebook.

In a mediation with Monica Gamez he played a tape recording made by one of the same workers who had stolen store contracts from customers. The recording made by former sales worker Fabian Karam consisted of a slur of defamatory and scatological insults directed at Mark Williamson and SolarSnap. It was discovered that Monica Gamez had formed a Whatsapp a group with many of the other authors. They were all working together on this concerted and concerted attack.

Martinez has filed at least 3 complaints with the Public Prosecutor for stalking, threats, defamation and death threats. None, however, have been investigated by the outlaws Gamez Grijalva. Those in charge of keeping control of this matter in the office of the Public Minister are named as follows: Karla Yadira Brockman Salazar, David Martinez and Shelby Liray Velazquez Mendoza.

Martinez was returning from a scheduled meeting with Brokman Salazar when a late model 4-door sedan jumped onto the sidewalk where Ms. Martinez was waiting to catch a bus. The car continued down the sidewalk toward Ms. Martinez, seeing the car coming quickly toward her, she jumped out of the way, narrowly missing being struck. The driver apparently intended to kill or maim Ms. Martinez.

It seems evident now that Luis and Monica Grijalva Harro intend to make good on their promises made on Facebook to murder people involved in this matter. It also appears that the driver of the car had followed and was waiting for Ms. Karla Yadira Brockman Salazar must have given her specific location information, just as she had given the criminals the address to the previous safe house in December, 2018.

Martinez has already been moved by her family twice to get relief from the stalking pressures being made by Public Minister and Monica Gamez Grijalva.

"It is the most insulting and degrading experience to sit there in court and watch the people who kidnapped him, destroyed his store and tried to execute his valued worker and friend with a car, charge him with an impossible and ridiculous crime, and watch their puppet judge, withholding a Cheshire cat grin and prosecuting him as a criminal. It is an insult to the dignity of humanity," said Mr.

In response to pressure exerted on the prosecution, the criminal case was subsequently withdrawn. However, no formal dismissal was made by the court. A new case was then instituted alleging that SolarSnap workers had taken only five solar panels on the same day that they had previously stolen an entire installation of solar panels 45. However, the formal prosecution was never properly terminated or a new prosecution initiated. The new case is proceeding without proper authorization.

"Apparently, they just do what they want in Sonora's criminal justice system. The public minister basically admitted that he lied, made up this case of solar panel theft 45, of 1.5 metric tons of material taken from a locked installation site by two people in a van load. Then he changed his story and said, 'Hey, I lied, or I must have made a big mistake. Wow. I guess only five solar panels were taken.' The public minister was forced to admit that, the only evidence she had were these three lying witnesses, the hijackers, and her crazy, fabricated robbery story, which has now completely fallen apart. Now, she is inventing a whole new scenario. She should start over in the process. The first case should be dismissed and the new case filed procedurally. But no, this is Mexico. The law does not matter here. The bribed public minister and the judge, do not follow the law. They are, apparently, the law. Who needs laws with people like this in charge? In Mexico, especially Sonora, no one wants to prosecute drug traffickers, but we sure can prosecute these corrupt officials! said Mr. Williamson in closing.


Back to Blog Index