03/28/2021 2:50 PM
Clarín.com
Police
Updated 03/28/2021 2:50 PM
The auction was news in itself.
They were four high-end cars and trucks that belonged to Marcelo Balcedo (58), the former leader of the Union of Minority and Education Workers and Employees (Soeme), valued at about $ 800,000.
What happened next was unexpected: a "drunk" got into the auction, made the best offers for three of the vehicles, but in the end he didn't have the money and ruined the auction.
Now they are investigating him for scam.
The episode, bizarre by the way, occurred in Uruguay, where Balcedo was arrested in January 2018 and is serving a sentence for "money laundering, smuggling and arms trafficking."
In that case, a fleet of luxury cars, two mansions in Punta del Este, an arsenal of arms and ammunition, and about 7 million dollars in a safe and five safe boxes in a bank were seized from the union member.
It is suspected that the fortune is the product of corruption with the funds of the union, which would reach 500 million pesos according to an investigation by the Federal Justice of La Plata.
The auction of four of those cars organized by the National Drug Board of Uruguay was scheduled for Thursday at 11 in a room at the Radisson Victoria Plaza in Montevideo.
The cars were a Porsche Panamera, a Porsche Boxster S, a Chevrolet Camaro, and a Land Rover Range Rover Sport 4x4.
The goal of the authorities was to raise $ 250,000 for the four cars.
The auction of four luxury cars that belonged to Marcelo Balcedo ended up on paper.
The situation was seasoned in advance because on Monday Balcedo's wife, Paola Fiege (36) -also condemned-, went through the hall of the National Association of Appraisers and Real Estate Brokers (Anrtci) where the vehicles were displayed to learn about the auction.
In dialogue with the
Montevideo Portal
site
, Fiege expressed his intention to buy back the vehicles that the Uruguayan Justice had seized from him.
Another ingredient was added on Tuesday: Sergio Omar Martínez (51), owner of a car dealership linked to Balcedo and who was imprisoned in a money laundering case, requested the suspension of the auction of the four luxury cars, claiming that two were of your property.
Justice did not respond to his claim and the auction was held on Thursday.
That morning in the Ballroom of the Radisson there were a lot of people interested in the unionist's cars.
Minutes after 11, the auctioneer Mario Molina began to offer the vehicles.
The bidding began.
Fiege was in the room but silent.
A man in a sports jacket bidding on the Boxster S, Camaro, Range Rover and Panamera began to attract the attention of those present.
The auction got dynamic but finally this unknown person, who never stopped talking on the phone, managed to win three of the four auctions.
Marcelo Balcedo and his wife Paola Fiege, convicted in Uruguay of money laundering.
The Porsche Panamera was awarded for $ 125,000, the Range Rover for $ 133,000 and the Camaro for $ 82,000.
He could not with the Boxster S that another interested party took it for 73 thousand.
The auction was a resounding success for the organizers, since they almost doubled their target amount.
The unexpected came when it was time to put the hook in the operation and leave the signal for the three cars.
"
We are waiting for you, gentleman
," Molina said to the man in the sports jacket and invited him to a reserved room.
The auction rules established that the winner had to leave a mark of 30% of the fixed price for each vehicle.
That is, about $ 102,000.
The man then said that he is actually a mechanic and that it was on behalf of a businessman from Nueva Palmira, Colonia, who had the money but not in cash, but in fields and a notary's office.
Then he called the businessman's daughter to sign the purchase of the vehicles.
The young woman appeared at the Radisson Victoria Plaza and gave a version that further puzzled the organizers: "
My father is a drunk, has psychiatric problems and does not have that much money
."
The Range Rover was bought for $ 133,000.
Now they will auction it again.
The newsletter led to a complaint for fraud by the National Drug Board and an investigation by the Directorate of Organized Crime and Interpol.
When they summoned him to testify, the mechanic confirmed his initial version to the Police: “That man from Nueva Palmira told me that when he won the bid at the auction he had to call his daughter and tell her that she was going to sign the purchase of the cars. ”.
The Cologne Police went to look for the businessman at his home and, upon arrival,
they found a person in a state of drunkenness
.
The officers still notified him that he was summoned to testify in Montevideo and the man refused.
According to
El País
, the Justice was evaluating requesting his arrest and transferring him to a police station for questioning.
Now everything can lead to a criminal case against the mechanic and the employer.
The concrete thing is that the auction of the cars was suspended.
It would be done again in a month.
There was controversy in Uruguay about the reasons why they did not award the vehicles to the bidders who were in second place.
The issue is that this rule was not informed at the time of the auction and, at the same time, as a “scam” is being investigated, the prices could have been inflated during the bidding.
The Porsche Boxster S that belonged to the former Soeme leader.
Even when it was not yet known what would be the outcome of the auction, the auctioneer Molina acknowledged that they saw "many people interested" in the cars but never imagined that the sale prices would be "so high."
As soon as the auction ended, Balcedo's wife got up from her chair, began to applaud, and left accompanied by a man.
In dialogue with the
Uruguayan
newspaper
El Observador
, Feige said that the prices of the cars were “overvalued” and added: “Maybe because they were ours.
You see that it is attractive to have cars from a leader,
"he said.
The Balcedo case
Balcedo is syndicated by the Argentine Justice as the "head" of "an illicit association" accused of diverting 500 million pesos belonging to the Soeme union between 2012 and 2018. For this reason, there are ten friends and relatives of the unionist sent to trial except Balcedo, for whom his extradition from Uruguay is still awaited.
In the neighboring country, what had been the "largest money seizure in history" - based on the Argentine investigation - was deflated over time.
First, the Uruguayan Justice benefited Balcedo and his wife Paola Fiege - also detained - with house arrest in one of their mansions.
Later, Balcedo's request for 11 years in prison was lowered to four years and 8 months in an agreement in which the union member and his wife pleaded guilty to avoid oral trial.
Fiege was sentenced to three years in prison.
The two avoided going back to jail.
In exchange, they had to give the Uruguayan State $ 8 million, a mansion in Maldonado and the four high-end cars from the failed auction: the Porsche Panamera, the Porsche Boxster S, the Chevrolet Camaro and a 4x4 Land Rover Range Rover Sport.
For the Porsche Panamera they offered $ 125,000.
Finally, Justice ended up returning to the couple a large part of the luxury vehicles of a fleet of 14 that had been seized, among them, a Ferrari California, a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, a Dodge Ram 2500 SLT truck, a pickup Ford Raptor, four jets skis, among others.
They also gave them a mansion and reimbursed them $ 2.5 million.
In October 2020, federal judge Ernesto Kreplak, who is investigating Balcedo and his surroundings in our country, had asked the Uruguayan Justice to keep the 2.5 million dollars seized from him in the investigation.
The judge requested the extradition of Balcedo on different occasions to testify for the diversion of funds from Soeme and money laundering.
They awarded 61 assets between high-end cars, boats and properties.
Balcedo was never extradited nor could he be investigated by videoconference.
EMJ