Colombia’s finance intelligence unit UIAF informed the House of Representatives that it found “unjustified wealth accumulation” in the tax records of Supreme Court magistrate Cristina Lombana.
In a report made public by Caracol Radio, the UIAF said that it found that Lombana and her husband, attorney Leonardo Andres Carvajal, reported a wealth accumulation that allegedly exceeded their income.
According to the UIAF, Lombana’s net worth was $171,500 (COP651 million) in 2017, a year before she was appointed to the Supreme Court.
By 2024, the magistrate’s net worth had increased to more than $802 thousand, Lombana’s tax records allegedly showed.
The UIAF additionally claimed that the magistrate’s reported assets would be worth three times as much as reported to tax authority DIAN.
According to the financial intelligence unit, Lombana and her husband are the registered owners of 13 real estate properties in Bogota and the surrounding Cundinamarca province, and Medellin.
The reported and presumed increase in their assets’ value can’t be explained by the income reported by the magistrate and her husband, who works as a public defender for the Ombudsman’s Office.
The UIAF also found that Lombana received both a salary for her job at the Supreme Court and continues to receive disabilities benefits after she was found unfit to work while working for the military justice system.
When asked about her and her husband’s wealth accumulation, Lombana stressed that her husband was an honest worker and keeping a low profile.
According to Caracol, Carvajal was the defense attorney of Jose Miguel Narvaez, a former intelligence executive who is serving 26 years in prison for his role in the assassination of legendary journalist and comedian Jaime Garzon.
The investigation into the magistrate, which could result in criminal charges, followed criminal complaints by one of her colleagues, magistrate Cesar Reyes, and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti, who is being investigated by Lombana.
Lombana has been a controversial figure ever since she entered Colombia’s top court and failed to report a conflict of interest as a former intern at the law office of Jaime Granados, the defense attorney of former President Alvaro Uribe, who was being investigated by Reyes at the time.
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