Justice prosecuted a group of people for launder almost 65 million dollars, simulating business operations that never existed and transferring money to the United States and the Republic of China. According to the investigation, an organization was set up that was supposedly in charge of carrying out international maritime freight and thus managed to bypass the controls that existed at that time due to the exchange stocks. The mechanism was to use two shell companies on behalf of the elderly or people in vulnerable conditions.
Among those involved is a prestigious financial adviser who worked for the Macri Group in his early days, according to what he himself recounted in the investigation. This is the financial adviser paul alejandro asenciowho was also president of a firm investigated in the case Soccer for All. The data was incorporated into the cause after it was detected a secret door in a raid with numerous documents. The ruling also established that two of those involved knew of the existence of the cause when the case was under summary secrecy and was just beginning to be processed, says the resolution to which it agreed. Infobae.
As a result of these maneuvers, the economic criminal judge Diego Amarante signed indictments for aggravated money laundering Y embargoes for 300 million dollars, at the official exchange rate, for each of the suspects. Days later, the Economic Criminal Chamber upheld the releases and unexpectedly decided to remove the judge from the case at the request of a defendant. Now, the appellate court must analyze whether it confirms the prosecutions resulting from an investigation in which hundreds of evidence, microfilming of checks, some 8,760 hours of direct listening, surveillance and raids were collected.
The cause. The case began in 2018 with a complaint from the Office of Economic Crime and Money Laundering against a group of companies and individuals for “the circulation in the formal market of funds that would come from an illegal activity, during the period from October 2012 to December 2013, by the companies Trans Pasi SA and Totem Logística SRL”. Those Societies would have been armed “with the sole purpose of creating a structure that appears to be legal to the money with which foreign currency would have been acquired in the official market for its subsequent transfer abroad in concept of payment of supposed freights for foreign trade operations”, it was held.
This situation allowed them buy currency at the official exchange rate at a time of exchange rate and when there was a significant gap with the operations in the informal market. Checks from alleged clients arrived at the bank accounts of these firms. How much was washed? Almost US$ 65,000,000. “Since the dawn of the criminal plan,” those involved “engineered astute maneuvers directly aimed at guaranteeing their impunity, for which they did not hesitate to make use of people in a situation of vulnerability, who in the context of what was planned would be the ones who were called to assume criminal responsibility”, Amarante maintained.
the name lenders. “Since I was 15 years old, I have been doing painting, masonry and maintenance work in general. About ten years ago it was one of those spells of little work. One of the many people that I have done maintenance work for, I remember well that she was an accountant, she called me to tell me that she did not have painting jobs to offer me but that could give me a hand by appearing as an employee of a company that had to add staff. He told me that it was only for a while and that in exchange they would pay me a few pesos per month and they would pay me the social charges. The latter was what interested me the most because since I work for myself, I don’t have a pension or social security, so having those contributions would help me. He explained to me that it was to sign some papers and perhaps go to the office in the center from time to time, ”said one of the dismissed.
He went to the Obelisk with his partner, they were taken to an office, he gave a copy of his ID. After a month they notified him of a payment and then he did not know anything else. Years later they called him again to tell him that they had to be discharged. “I never knew of operations to buy or sell dollars or freight invoices. I never asked for any bank account for myself or for a company. I only signed papers that I understood were to be an employee of a company… I was interested, more than anything, in having retirement contributions and social work”, narrowed. The same was said by his ex-wife, a domestic employee by the hour and in black. “I never signed any paper, at least I don’t remember it, nor did I go to any bank, nor did I do any type of paperwork…”. There they found out that they were listed as the heads of companies that moved millions of dollars with maritime freight operations.
The investigation established that simulated 53 foreign trade operations and the beneficiaries of the transfers were companies located in the United States and the People’s Republic of China for the sum of US$ 64,905,237.62. The judge could not prove who were “the true beneficiaries from abroad with respect to which no results have been obtained to date” but pointed out that two of those involved have accounts in the interior and “economic interests that allow us to assume that they could have been some of the beneficiaries of the detailed transfers”.
Amarante prosecuted Pablo Alejandro Asensio, Alejandro Javier Sied, Ángel Gustavo Adolfo Demolli, Ángel Antonio Di Laura and Marisa Susana Rojas, while he decreed a lack of merit, two dismissals (that of the bricklayer and his ex-wife) and the extinction of the action penalty for three of those investigated: they were also in charge of the companies and died in the course of the process. In his resolution, the judge ordered to proceed with more inquiries and analyze why the banking entities involved did not warn of suspicions.
Discharge, secret doors and key papers. On his occasion, Asensio denied the accusations and requested his dismissal. There he described himself as “an entrepreneur who, with great effort and special adherence to the law, has developed various ventures betting on the country and obtaining international recognition” and reviewed his work history “By 1989 he had started working at Agromadera SA, a company from Grupo Macri, with which I have a great relationship because I am friends of the youth in Tandil (…) Over the years, I ascended in the structure and managed to be the Head of International Trade, doing all the necessary work for the export of complete ships with pine wood for construction and eucalyptus wood for the manufacture of paper pulp”.
Later he became independent and between 2003 and 2009 he dedicated himself to agricultural and livestock activities. It was only then that he entered the financial market. “My patrimonial evolution has been solely the result of the effort put into the business development carried out”, he maintained to reject the accusations in this case. And he added: “I became aware of the filing of this case with the surprise raids that were carried out in my office and my home.”
However, according to the resolution, those investigated were aware of the cause when the case was still in its infancy. One detail caught our attention: at the time of the raid on the home, Asencio was found in his wallet a piece of paper that said “Law Judge Amarante Art. 303 and 304 Complainant Procelac Economic Criminal Judge #5 Secretariat 9″.
Why did the data attract attention? Because this was in November 2019 when the case was under summary secrecy. Asencio just appeared in the file days later. “I became aware of the filing of this case with the surprise raids that were carried out in my office and my home,” Asencio said in the case, “when in reality, on the day of the raid, he had in his possession the precise information of the case, intervening court , people investigated and form of initiation without said information, of course, having obtained it through formal and regular channels through the file,” Amarante wrote.
At that point, the one who had appeared in the case was Alejandro Javier Sied, his neighbor from San Jorge Village, a trusted person and friend. “In an inexplicable and untimely manner on October 1, 2019 ″, Sied arrived at the courthouse, alleging that he “had become aware” of the existence of the summary, the judge specified in his resolution. The cause was kept secret and therefore he could not see it until mid-December. “It is evident then, that both Sied and Asensio knew from before the raids that they were being investigated by this Court and for the crime of money laundering of illicit origin”, outside “the normal and legal courses of a judicial file”, the ruling stated.
Investigators were also surprised when they found a double wall which housed voluminous documentation. They were papers from the Mutual Association of Remiseros, entity by which Asensio is criminally investigated, informed the resolution. In addition, it was detailed, the Abakon Factoring and Financial Services firm – chaired by Asensio – was also investigated within the framework of the Soccer for All case.
“From the foregoing it follows that Asensio He had a hidden structure in his office, in which he stored information that could be relevant for the purposes of a judicial investigation that he was aware of and that was in progress, evidencing the contempt of the person named for judicial activity and his specific ability to hide information and hinder any type of investigation.”
After the arrests, the defenses appealed and the releases were ordered. Then, Judge Amarante was removed from the case, following the presentation of one of those involved, Sied, who spoke of “fear of partiality”. The defendants also appealed the resolution that is now under study by the Economic Criminal Chamber.
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