Lucia Salinas
08/12/2021 18:17
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 08/12/2021 6:17 PM
Federal judge Sebastián Casanello
prosecuted
Néstor Ramos, a key man in the structure that allowed Lázaro Báez to launder $ 33 million, for money laundering.
He seized him for 300 million dollars and found him responsible for the
financial maneuvers
that made it possible for Cristina Kirchner's former business partner to launder funds "of illicit origin."
As
Clarín said,
Ramos p
withheld an investigative statement from Switzerland
ten days ago after five years and several
extradition requests
from Judge Casanello and prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan. Despite having made a written discharge, it was not enough to exempt him from procedural responsibilities.
He owns Helvetic Service Group
, the company used to buy the
SGI
financial company
, better known as La Rosadita
where the Baez were laundering money and which became famous for the video in which the son of businessman K, Martín, had a
value of 5 million dollars and toasted whiskey.
After analyzing the response of the businessman based in Switzerland, where Báez had several bank accounts used to move money of illicit origin, Casanello processed Néstor Ramos as a
participant in the structure
that allowed to put into circulation during December 2012 and January, February.
March and April 2013, "
goods of illicit origin that would be owned by Lázaro Báez, for a sum of 32.8 million dollars
, which would end up being incorporated into the patrimony of Austral Construcciones SA", the resolution agreed to by
Clarín .
The embargo on Ramos was
$ 300 million
, ten times the money he laundered with the structure under investigation.
This is the highest fine according to the money laundering law.
The owner of HSG had said in the written submission that all the operations that link him with Lázaro Báez
were “legally legal”
and “within the framework of fiduciary services rendered to Mr. Báez”. Ramos separated himself from any other type of relationship with businessman K. "It seems important to point out that my relationship with him only took place within the framework of this professional relationship, limiting itself to the legal contractual and commercial link, and that it was in the interest of both parties. ”.
However, Judge Casanello understood that there was sufficient evidence to incriminate him. The maneuver for which Ramos ended up being processed this Thursday consisted of
a series of transactions with public debt securities acquired abroad
, deposited by the Safra Bank of Geneva, Switzerland, through the Euroclear clearing system, from the Helvetic Services account Group SA, attributed to Ramos for 33% and
Ursula Verena Fontana
for the remaining percentage and whose financial movements benefited Báez.
In his resolution, Judge Casanello stated: "It is considered proven that Néstor Marcelo Ramos
made the Spanish company and the bank accounts under his control available
to receive part of the funds of illicit origin that escaped from the country in January 2011 by Leonardo Fariña -with the contribution of the directors of the Provalor brokerage company- and implement the last
payment of almost 3 million dollars to the seller of the Uruguayan
farm
in July 2011 ".
He also indicated that simultaneously,
Daniel Pérez Gadín and Jorge Oscar Chueco -
Báez's accountant and lawyer - "took the reins of the business and concluded with the deed of the land in the name of a new company called
Jumey SA
, controlled by the accountant."
It was taken into account that Báez's lawyer, Jorge Chueco, had a power of attorney from Helvetic.
During the investigation, it was determined that the firm was managed by Ramos.
"This would not be the only contribution made by Néstor Marcelo Ramos to the criminal structure," said Judge Casanello, who also made reference
to the use of bonds, with which Austral Construcciones re-entered the illicit money into the country,
as an "instrument to hide the origin of the money ”.
In this regard, the judge pointed out that "the Swiss Helvetic Services Group becomes the owner of the financial company SGI", a key player in the money laundering maneuvers.
"The financial services it offered were traversed by the same vector: the concealment of the money traded, which avoided tracing its origin," said Casanello.
He also mentioned another link between Ramos and Báez.
He referred to the "false landing of the Swiss firm in Austral Construcciones", since "it was considered proven at this stage of investigation that part of this
mass of black money left the country clandestinely and ended up deposited in different Swiss banking institutions
, in accounts owned by bearer share companies located in tax havens, owned by Báez and his direct family members ".
It should be remembered that the court confirmed 139 operations for more than 20 million dollars in Switzerland, linked to the environment of businessman K and that several of the bank accounts showed that his four children were beneficiaries of them.
One of the last documents delivered by Switzerland, as reported by
Clarín,
stated that the beneficiaries of the Helvetic Service Group (HSG) account opened at the J. Safra Sarasin bank were
Martín, Leandro, Luciana and Melina Báez, all convicted of money laundering. money.
Although Helvetic's lawyer and owner said that his relationship with Báez was purely professional, Casanello mentioned more interventions in the money laundering maneuvers.
He emphasized the
Austral-Helvetic-Kinsky agreement.
To all this set of operations, the account opened in the name of this company was added for the benefit of the "same beneficiaries of the Fondation Kinsky account", that is: "the four children of Lázaro Báez."
The Swiss bank reported the existence of documentation that supports said maneuver and accompanied a "Preferred Stock Subscription Agreement" that was signed between HSG, represented by Ramos, and Austral, represented by its then president, Julio Mendoza.
Thus, through HSG, 21,800 preferred shares issued by the construction company equivalent to 21,800,000 dollars were subscribed.
All data that Casanello considered corroborated.
Lázaro Báez always denied that the company belonged to him and
only admitted having received 209 million pesos from it for a work. But during 2017, the Financial Investigation Unit (UIF) presented a document where the firm linked to businessman K would have received 25 transactions for more than nine million dollars in the United States. In addition, the lawyer Néstor Ramos collected commissions from a Spanish firm for 900,000 euros.