(ANSA) - BUENOS AIRES, AUG 18 - Four months after returning to the highly acclaimed stage of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Spanish tenor Placido Domingo is back to stir the Argentine and international news, not for a new performance canora, but on the suspicion of his complicity with an organization dedicated to illicit sexual trafficking.
The fact is that last week, at the behest of federal judge Ariel Lijo, the police carried out dozens of searches in the Argentine capital in the premises of a more than suspicious Yoga School in Buenos Aires and in the homes of its members, arresting 19 people. seizing movable and immovable property, and coming into possession of numerous telephone interceptions, in one of which the voice of the Spanish tenor would unequivocally result.
The investigators have officially confirmed the existence of the wiretapping that refer to Domingo, even if they have assured that for the moment the artist is not accused of anything.
It should be remembered that just two years ago the news of a large group of American women who had accused the 81 / year old man of sexual abuse went around the world.
The story was partially confirmed by him, but the impact on the media still forced him to apologize, to interrupt a collaboration with New York's Metropolitan Opera and to resign from the direction of the Los Angeles Opera.
Now the undated interceptions available to the Argentine justice have rekindled the spotlight on him.
Some extracts of them have been broadcast on radio and TV.
In one you hear a man, presumably just Domingo,
talk to a woman named Mendy in order to arrange a sexual encounter with her in New York.
In another sound document, Mendy herself tells the head of the Buenos Aires School of Yoga, Juan Percowicz, that she has finally managed to "confirm the plans" with "that man", whom she calls 'Plácido'.
The organization led by Percowicz, 84, who is among the people arrested, has been active for over 30 years and already between 1993 and 1994, had serious problems with the justice system that had accused it of being nothing more than a criminal sect with a sexual background specializing in VIP customers.
that she finally managed to "confirm the plans" with "that man", whom she calls 'Plácido'.
The organization led by Percowicz, 84, who is among the people arrested, has been active for over 30 years and already between 1993 and 1994, had serious problems with the justice system that had accused it of being nothing more than a criminal sect with a sexual background specializing in VIP customers.
that she finally managed to "confirm the plans" with "that man", whom she calls 'Plácido'.
The organization led by Percowicz, 84, who is among the people arrested, has been active for over 30 years and already between 1993 and 1994, had serious problems with the justice that had accused it of being nothing more than a criminal sect with a sexual background specializing in VIP customers.
At that moment the judge Mariano Bergés argued that with the cover of pseudo-philosophical arguments (theory of cosmic transcendence), and through the activity of yoga, girls were actually recruited who were transformed into 'sex slaves', engaged in hard encounters. to raise money for the benefit of the organization.
Bergés also explained that the illicit activity took place and justified under the cover of a theory of the 'geishato' which asserted the duty to '' demonstrate love for the people ''.
To participate in the meetings, you had to pay 100 pesos (at the time 170,000 lire).
Percovich denied these accusations by claiming that he was only a disciple of the `` School of the Fourth Way '' founded by the Russian Georghi Ivanovic Gurdjeff and was heard by the appellate judge who acquitted him and his collaborators.
Today, however, those accusations are topical again, also involving high-profile personalities, as is the case of Placido Domingo.
Judge Lijo believes the organization has been recruiting people since at least 2004, building over time "a hierarchical and pyramidal structure involving about 179 students, spread across its various locations in Buenos Aires, Las Vegas, Chicago and New York. ( HANDLE).