The Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo is linked to a network of sexual exploitation in Argentina

Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo was linked to a sexual exploitation network dismantled in Buenos Aires, which functioned as a yoga school, the Argentine newspaper La Nación reported on Wednesday.

During an operation carried out on Sunday, August 14, the police arrested 19 people and carried out 50 raids against the criminal group, subsequently seizing 37 properties, 13 vehicles and freezing assets.

Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo during a performance at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on April 10, 2022. Marcos Brindicci / Getty Images

As a result of the raid, the local press has leaked audio recordings obtained through wiretapping, in which one of the voices is attributed by the authorities to Domingo, 81 years old.

In one of the audios, the singer allegedly has a sexual encounter with a woman named Mendy in his hotel room in the Argentine capital and instructs her to avoid the security personnel accompanying him.

In another excerpt, the woman confirms to the leader of the sex trafficking ring, Juan Percowicz, her date with a man she calls "Placido."

[Singer Plácido Domingo sexually harassed 27 women, according to an investigation]

In a third audio, Mendy tells a man that the authorities have not identified his plans with the tenor.

"Placido said that he could come to visit us, that is to say, that he is going to come to visit me. Because he is going home to New York and he remembered it yesterday," he explains.

"I will have to sacrifice myself once again, I have a great vocation for service," says the woman.

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Dozens of women have publicly denounced sexual misconduct by Domingo since 2019.

An investigation by the American union that represents opera artists revealed in 2020 that the singer sexually harassed 27 women when he held directing positions at the Washington National Opera and the Los Angeles Opera.

"I have taken time over the past few months to reflect on the accusations that several of my colleagues have made against me. I respect that these women finally felt comfortable enough to speak out, and I want them to know that I am truly 

. I accept full responsibility for my actions, and I have grown from this experience, "he said two years ago after the publication of the investigation.

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As a result of the scandal that this caused, Domingo resigned from directing the Los Angeles Opera and disassociated himself from the New York Metropolitan Opera.

In addition, he was removed from the Washington National Opera's Early Career Young Artists Program in Washington, DC, where he served as Artistic Director and later General Director from 1996 to 2011.

"I have taken time over the past few months to reflect on the accusations that several of my colleagues have made against me. I respect that these women finally felt comfortable enough to speak out, and I want them to know that I am truly 

sorry for the hurt that I have done to them ." I

caused

. I accept full responsibility for my actions, and I have grown from this experience," he said two years agoA sect with three axes

The Argentine sexual exploitation network was actually a sect that stripped its members of all their assets and operated under three axes, according to La Nación.

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The first consisted of a monthly fee paid by its members, ranging from $200 to $10,000.

The second was based on medical care, which included admission to a clinic to treat addictions and the supply of drugs.

The last one, called "Geishado VIP" and a fundamental part of the sect, was to organize sexual encounters between members of the sect and personalities with economic power.