Judge Juan Gustavo Varillas Solano of the Seventh Civil Court of the Commercial subspecialty in Lima has issued a precautionary measure suspending the sale of Grupo El Comercio. The measure favors minority shareholders Hernández López de Romaña Dalmau, Alois Miró Quesada Koechlin and Arthur Do Nascimento Silva, according to a leaked judicial resolution.
Because it is an out of process precautionary measure, Grupo El Comercio cannot know the terms of the lawsuit until the judicial process concludes. The measure aims for the three shareholders to initiate an arbitration process against Empresa Editora El Comercio within ten days, with the arbitration tribunal to be installed within three months or 90 days.
Resolution Number One, dated June 30, 2026, and issued by Judge Varillas, imposes a $50,000 surety bond counter caution to suspend a sale worth nearly $50 million. According to procedural rules, financial backing should compensate for the risk of the commercial transaction being avoided.
The Prosecutor's Office and the State Attorney General's Office have previously questioned similar disproportions in other controversial cases handled by the court.
Eight ongoing criminal investigations
Judge Varillas Solano has accumulated multiple complaints from citizens and affected litigants, as well as questions from the State Attorney General's Office, accusations from the Prosecutor's Office, and ongoing proceedings in the Superior Court of Lima and the Permanent Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice.
According to Public Ministry reports, Varillas has eight ongoing criminal investigations since 2019. These are for crimes including prevarication, abuse of authority, ideological falsehood, use of false documents, procedural fraud, omission of functional acts, transnational active bribery, aggravated theft, money laundering, and active bribery.
Three of these eight cases have moved to the Judiciary with Varillas as a defendant. They are being processed before the Superior Court of Preparatory Investigation of the Lima Court and the Permanent Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court for crimes including improper passive bribery, money laundering, influence peddling, and illegal assumption of ongoing proceedings.
The commercial judge is also mentioned in the Orellana network, linked to the trafficking of arbitrations and precautionary measures, with payments of up to $30,000 per resolution. In the White Collars of the Port case, fugitive former judge César Hinostroza asked him in an audio to attend to a lawyer friend in exchange for supporting his promotion.
He is mentioned in the Oncoserv case regarding precautionary measures for retention and advance payment that forced the Regional Government of Arequipa to pay more than $8.5 million. He admitted the lawsuit from the Casa Huerta El Paraíso Puente Piedra association to suspend toll collection by the Rutas de Lima company.
Disciplinary administrative processes
The Attorney General's Office has promoted a series of criminal complaints and disciplinary administrative processes against him. The institution accused him of issuing precautionary measures in 2019 in favor of contractor Consorcio Salud Tacna to prevent the Regional Government of Tacna from resolving a contract and claiming the payment of surety bonds for a project delayed by 79.89 percent, until an arbitration was resolved.
It also questioned that he imposed a counter caution of only one million soles for a 279 million sol project. The Attorney General of the Regional Government of Tacna asked in a December 5, 2020 brief if one million soles could guarantee and repair damages caused by the precautionary measure for a project with an investment of 279 million.
Meanwhile, the National Control Authority of the Judiciary and the National Board of Justice remain silent, allowing Varillas Solano to continue operating in the Seventh Civil Commercial Court of the Superior Court of Lima.
The Attorney General's Office also questioned other precautionary measures issued without proper legal foundation by Judge Varillas Solano. These prevented the collection of surety bonds in the cases of the Huarmaca and Huancabamba Hospital in Piura, the Lorena Hospital in Cusco, and the Chala Hospital in Arequipa, which had committed funds of 600 million soles, despite the projects being paralyzed for more than 10 years.
Disciplinary actions and fines
At the disciplinary level, Judge Varillas Solano has only received a six month suspension and two fines of 12 percent of his salary. One of the fines was for not diligently attending to the court in his charge.
The other was for a complaint filed by Repsol Exploración Perú after he approved unusual amounts for procedural costs during an arbitral award between that company and Helicopter Transport Services del Perú S.A.C.
In ongoing judicial proceedings, the Second Superior Court of Preparatory Investigation, in a decision confirmed by the Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court, imposed a mandate of restricted appearance on him and the dismissed Salazar Laynes on February 4, 2019. This included compliance with three rules of conduct and the payment of a 15,000 sol bond.
The rules were the obligation not to leave his place of residence without prior judicial authorization, the obligation to present himself before the authority every 30 days, and the prohibition of approaching businessman Eddy Luis Manfreda Geraldino.
Liga 1 broadcast contracts
On March 7, 2024, he was suspended for six months after processing an express and automatic precautionary measure in favor of the president of the Peruvian Football Federation, Agustín Lozano. This suspended the 2023 Liga 1 broadcast contracts that Alianza Lima, Universitario de Deportes, and Cienciano clubs had signed with the Consorcio Fútbol Peruano GolPerú.
After the suspension, he returned to the Seventh Civil Subspecialty of Commercial Law Court of Lima. The arbitration is ongoing, but over time, the football clubs had to accept the federation's conditions.
