Lucia Salinas
Jasmine Bullorini
07/07/2020 - 11:29
- Clarín.com
- Politics
On November 4, 2019, Judge Claudio Bonadio prosecuted Fabián Gutiérrez for money laundering, in an investigation started in 2017 after a complaint by the Financial Information Unit (UIF). According to the anti-laundering agency, from 2007 to 2015, its assets grew more than 15 times.
His embargo was 900 million pesos and now the opposition is demanding that the assets of Cristina Kirchner's former private secretary be recovered and the early confiscation provided for in Article 305 of the Penal Code be applied.
The national deputies for the Civic Coalition, Mónica Frade, Marcela Campagnoli and María Lucila Lehman, presented a request before the judge of the case, Marcelo Martínez De Giorgi, demanding that the assets of Fabián Gutiérrez be seized in advance based on what The Penal Code establishes in its article 305: “In money laundering operations, they will be definitively confiscated, without the need for a criminal conviction, when the illegality of their origin, or of the material fact to which they were linked, could have been verified, and the accused cannot be prosecuted * on the grounds of death *, flight, prescription or any other reason for suspension or extinction of the criminal action, or when the accused has recognized the provenance or illicit use of the assets ”.
"With death, the investigation for their criminal responsibility remains abstract, but if there are ill-gotten assets, they must be preserved, confiscated and returned to the community. It is not just that people go to jail, but to recover what was stolen. For us, that It is the north and we will be very attentive. It was the first thing Lilita asked us , "Frade assured Clarín.
"It is striking that a private secretary who does not come from a wealthy family has bought 32 properties. Since he is not going to testify at the trial, we ask that until the investigation of the notebooks continues , the assets be preserved so that the family in the succession process does not liquefy them ", explained Marcela Campagnoli to Clarín .
"What we are asking for is what the FIU has to be doing. But since we are not part of the cause and we have no certainty, it is a reminder for them to do what they have to do, to lead the way. For obvious reasons it seems to us it doesn't hurt, "concluded Frade.
Months ago, the Civic Coalition had presented a project to use the more than $ 600 billion that the FIU withheld from causes of corruption in the fight against the pandemic.
Gutiérrez assassinated last week, who was accepted as a repentant collaborator in October 2018, in the cause known as the notebooks of the bribes, settled in recent years in El Calafate, where his ventures grew and acquired several properties that were under judicial investigation.
His economic movements raised suspicions in the FIU, which denounced him for illicit enrichment and money laundering. For Justice, the alleged laundering operations are linked to the maneuver that was "deployed with the participation of public officials of the current government, who took advantage of their positions to obtain funds corresponding to construction contracts, public services, transportation and road concessions, as well as businessmen who paid sums of money throughout that period. "
When he was prosecuted, Judge Bonadio maintained that the "link with the illicit association that Cristina Kirchner presided over, allowed Víctor Fabián Gutiérrez to receive money from said gang and then put it into circulation in the market, trying to give it a lawful appearance." Consequently, he seized an embargo of $ 900 million and now the opposition demands that his assets be confiscated.
The investigated operations were carried out between 2008 and 2018, "part of the illicit funds from public corruption being used for the acquisition of property and personal property in this country, more precisely in the Autonomous city of Buenos Aires, and in the Province of Buenos Aires, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego ”. More than 40 operations were investigated.
Numbers under suspicion
The anti-money laundering agency focused on the growth of Gutiérrez's assets. At that point, it was stated that the declarations of 2012, 2013 and 2014 were rectified (modified), some more than once.
The numbers were superlative: the patrimony in 2015 “represents more than 15 times its patrimony of the year 2007 (which arises from the relationship between 4,155,358.64 and 272,102.94 pesos)”, the complaint states.
The Justice believes that there were income of "great magnitude for the sale of real estate and for the sale of vehicles", and that, in several years, "they greatly exceed the income from their activity".
The goods declared in the country have a value of 8,549,514 pesos. This includes properties for 2.4 million pesos. From 2007 to July 2016, it incorporated 16 properties.
For example, he sold his land for 200,000 pesos, "with a profit of almost 1,900% in pesos." In turn, Gutiérrez declared during this period a donation from her mother for 750,000 pesos that was “suspicious” for the FIU.