Guadalupe Lizárraga Martes, 17 de Junio del 2025, 00:00
An in-depth look at Fimbres Consulting Group’s complex web of shell companies and its connections to political and economic networks.
By Guadalupe Lizarraga
The network of shell companies linked to Fimbres Consulting Group has facilitated the acquisition of dozens of luxury properties in Southern California through structures designed to conceal the true owners. This network stretches from San Diego to Miami, spanning the southern border of the United States.
Two key operators behind these transactions are Fernando Rafael Salgado Chávez, a businessman from Ensenada who uses front men and shared addresses to avoid leaving a direct trace on property deeds, and César Martín “Zepe” Ybarra Apel, a real estate agent from Mexicali licensed in California (#01850330). Ybarra handles real estate transactions through the firm Coldwell Banker West, using entities managed by Tijuana businessman Gustavo Fimbres.
One of the cases that recently gained public attention, following an investigation by Los Ángeles Press, involves Baja California Governor Marina del Pilar Ávila and a property located at 7910 Nathaniel Court in Rancho Santa Fe, valued at $4.475 million. The residence, reportedly unoccupied according to on-site verification by this journalist, has been presented by Fernando Salgado as part of his assets through his company, INTL Builders. It is part of a group of properties directly operated by Salgado, including the one at 2465 Selkirk Row in La Jolla —where he has listed his residence along with Iveth Arámbula— and the one at 7396 Turnberry Court in Rancho Santa Fe, with an estimated value of $9 million.
These properties are not registered under Fernando Salgado’s name. Instead, the acquisition and management of the real estate is carried out through limited liability companies (LLCs) registered in various states and headed by individuals — some without visible financial capacity or with personal ties to Salgado or to Zepe Ybarra.
A welfare beneficiary acting as a front man in Miami
Among the front men identified in this investigation is José de Jesús Hernández Fonseca, a 49-year-old originally from Atotonilco El Alto, Jalisco, with an alternate residence in Zapopan. He appears both as a modest agricultural producer and as a beneficiary of Mexico’s federal welfare programs since 2019. However, government records also show he has held a federal water concession since 2005, with an allotment of 200,000 cubic meters of groundwater. According to official Mexican databases, his profile matches that of a small-scale farmer receiving periodic economic support — ranging from 4,000 to 20,000 pesos (approximately $1,052 USD) — in addition to subsidized fertilizer programs.
Document from the National Transparency Platform regarding the water concession granted to the Hernández Fonseca brothers from Atotonilco El Alto, Jalisco.
Images of transparency documents showing that José de Jesús Hernández Fonseca is a beneficiary of federal welfare programs in Jalisco.
Hernández Fonseca is also a member of the political group Enlace Jalisco 2 de Julio, a network of businessmen that supported Andrés Manuel López Obrador during his 2018 presidential campaign and now backs Secretary of the Economy Marcelo Ebrard.
Meeting of the business group Enlace Jalisco 2 de Julio in support of Ebrard and López Obrador during their campaign on June 14, 2018. Photo: network.
His legal history also raises questions. On one hand, he has filed complaints against high-profile figures, including the former head of Customs in Tamaulipas and even former President Enrique Peña Nieto in 2017. In 2019, he also filed legal actions against magistrates Alberto Miguel Ruiz Matías and Víctor Manuel Flores Jiménez of the First Civil Collegiate Court.
On the other hand, he has been sued by his own sisters —María de Gracia and Sandra Hernández Fonseca— majority shareholders of Tequila Centinela, Inmobiliaria Cazarin, and Forrajera Ganaderos de Arandas.
They accuse him of inheritance fraud and allege that he bribed judges within the Jalisco judiciary to gain an advantage in the family dispute. The complaints include allegations of abuse of authority, illicit enrichment, and extortion —some even filed as a request for political impeachment before the state congress.
But the story of José de Jesús Hernández Fonseca extends beyond Mexico. His name also appears in public records from the state of Florida as the registered owner of 900 Biscayne Bay LLC, a company incorporated on May 19, 2022. The listed address is a luxury condominium facing Miami Bay, located at 900 Biscayne Blvd, Apartment 2704.
The office towers and commercial apartments on Biscayne Blvd. facing Miami Bay, Florida, where Fernando Salgado and José de Jesús Hernández Fonseca share an address.
In addition to 900 Biscayne Bay LLC, Hernández Fonseca is listed as the principal in at least 12 other companies registered in Florida, most of them domiciled at the same Biscayne condominium address. He is also linked to the address at 1000 Biscayne Blvd, Apartment 2402, Miami, FL 33132.
These shell companies — in addition to 900 Biscayne Bay — include Grupo Agrohenne, Provisiones Comerciales Keimer, AMR 4707, One Thousand Museum 1202, AMR 1804, One Thousand Museum 3202, and Centinela Group (a name shared with the Jalisco-based Tequila Centinela estate), among others. All are structured as LLCs, show no apparent economic activity, and follow the same legal façade pattern used to acquire and hold properties without revealing the true beneficiaries.
Seven entities registered under José de Jesús Hernández Fonseca linked to Fernando Salgado within the Fimbres network. Source: bizprofile.net
In addition to appearing in Florida public records alongside Fernando Salgado, José de Jesús Hernández Fonseca is also linked to another agent, Silvio A. Leal, the official principal of Coral Gables LLC, who likewise takes part in the network of shell companies. These entities are connected to high-ranking political figures: on Hernández Fonseca’s side, the ties lead to Marcelo Ebrard; on Salgado’s side, they extend to Baja California Governor Marina del Pilar —both affiliated with the ruling Morena party.
Web of LLCs with frontmen and operators from the Fimbres network reaching up to Morena officials.
While in Mexico businessman José de Jesús Hernández Fonseca, of Casa Centinela, receives benefits from the Bienestar program and is part of Marcelo Ebrard’s political group in Jalisco, in the United States he appears as a networked entrepreneur with a tax residence in one of the country’s most exclusive real estate areas.
A revealing detail linking him to Fernando Salgado and the Fimbres network is the official company email: [email protected], belonging to Iveth Arámbula, the woman who shares an address with Salgado at least in two properties in San Diego —one on Turnberry Court in Rancho Santa Fe, and another on Selkirk Row in La Jolla. This information was documented previously in an earlier Los Ángeles Press report.
Another key detail in public records is Fernando Salgado’s name as an “authorized member” of Paracorp Incorporated LLC, the registered agent with an address in Miami for one of Hernández Fonseca’s companies.
Paracorp Incorporated specializes in creating corporations with opaque structures, as seen with Fimbres Consulting Group in San Diego, and shares an office with dozens of other companies at 155 Office Plaza Dr., Tallahassee, Florida. Its role as an intermediary follows a documented pattern in the Salgado and Fimbres network: the systematic use of third parties to build legal layers that conceal the true ownership of assets.
Address of Paracorp Incorporated LLC, where Fernando Salgado and José de Jesús Hernández Fonseca intersect once again in Florida.
Official registration of Paracorp Incorporated LLC dated May 20, 2022, listing Jalisco businessman José de Jesús Hernández Fonseca and Baja California’s Fernando Salgado as principals.
Zepe, the third operator with a criminal background
The third key operator in this network, César Martín “Zepe” Ybarra Apel, is a binational real estate agent who has facilitated multiple transactions within a scheme involving shell companies and the use of straw buyers. His name is linked to properties acquired through LLCs associated with Fimbres Consulting Group, as well as rapid transfers among related families and companies.
However, Ybarra’s record goes beyond property documents: in Mexicali, Baja California, the State Attorney General’s Office has a fraud case filed against him under case number NUC 46961/2014 in the Asset Crimes Division. According to sources close to the investigation, the case has been deliberately stalled despite documentary evidence linking him to dispossession and simulated operations. The reason, they say, lies in his ties to political operatives and local power figures, which have shielded him from accountability for over a decade.
Baja California’s governor, Marina del Pilar Ávila, publicly acknowledged her “friendship” with Fernando Salgado in an official statement. César “Zepe” Ybarra operates within the same circle, managing properties and transactions alongside Salgado. It would be naive to believe these connections have no influence on the judicial sphere—especially when cases related to this corporate network remain stalled at the state prosecutor’s office.
A similar situation is faced by the sisters of José de Jesús Hernández Fonseca in Jalisco, whose complaints run into a judiciary permeated by the same networks of complicity.
Screenshot of the court file for César Martín Ybarra and his siblings, facing real estate fraud charges in 2014.+++
This is an ongoing investigation by journalist Guadalupe Lizárraga. If you have additional information, please contact: [email protected]