"It is insufficient with what we suffer," says one of the victims of the "Argentine Madoff" about the 8-year sentence

"There were

, others who abandoned health care, and so many who lost homes, dreams, and more."

The one who speaks is one of the victims of the biggest scam in Argentine history for which 

was sentenced this Thursday .

The "Argentine Madoff" was given

.

Far behind were the meetings with the biggest stars of the sport such as Lionel Messi, Roger Federer, Serena and Venus Williams.

The man who created Hope Funds and became rich through a ponzi scheme between 2007 and 2016 defrauded savers for some 185 million pesos in those years.

The Justice estimated the total fraud at

in the case of fraud, and 2.6 million dollars for money laundering, money that was ordered to be confiscated.

But unlike financier Bernard Madoff, the biggest con man in world history who committed a $65 billion fraud and received a 150-year prison sentence in the United States in 2009, his Argentine version received a much lesser

. 

The Federal Criminal Oral Court (TOF) No. 4 sentenced Blaksley Señorans for considering him the

, having committed repeated fraud on 311 occasions, laundering assets and incurring fraudulent insolvency.

In addition, you will have to pay a fine of four times the amount of the operations.

Which is equivalent to

, according to what

the lawyer for the victims, Víctor Varela, told

Only on May 9 will the foundations of the ruling be known and the convicted persons will appeal to reach a review by Cassation. 

But the conviction did not leave everyone satisfied.

"I am relieved that he did not get away with it, although it is also impotent because

," says María Ponzio, one of the victims.

The woman came to Hope Funds through acquaintances who had known the company for more than a year.

A few months before she blew up the scam she invested "a lot of money", but she doesn't want to talk about numbers.

Like so many other victims, Ponzio saw the construction of his house affected.

By fraud he delayed the work.

Today he still wonders "why the alarm was not raised earlier by the control bodies that regulate credit and investment institutions on Hope Funds".

The cause 

The oral trial, which began in February 2021, had 16 defendants.

The Justice not only sentenced the leader to an effective prison sentence, but also

(Blaksley's brother-in-law and administrative manager of the firm) to 4 years in prison.

While

(in charge of forming the companies abroad) and

(Blaksley's business manager and sister-in-law) were given 3 years and 6 months plus a fine of twice the amount of the operations.

Blaksley, Carozzino, Dolinkue and Vega put together a complex business structure that was intended to defraud private individuals.

They set up companies abroad, such as in the United States and Panama, to embezzle.

For their part, Rafael María De La Torre Urizar and Guillermo Müller received a sentence of 2 years and 8 months in prison, for this reason, their compliance was left on hold.

Like that of Damián Gómez and Daniela Sarsa (one year and 6 months).

The rest were acquitted.

Likewise, the TOF ordered the confiscation of 13,855,451.81 dollars, 42,234.59 euros and 32,249,332 pesos as proceeds from fraud, and 2,072,692 dollars for money laundering.

"Let's hope that the victims recover their money in whole or in part

," explains in dialogue with

María Alejandra Mángano, the prosecutor who requested the elevation of the case to trial when she was head of the Federal Prosecutor's Office No. 12.

She worked on the investigation with prosecutor María Laura Roteta, from the Prosecutor's Office for Economic Crime and Money Laundering (Procelac).

The sentences that the defendants received were less than those requested by the trial prosecutor Abel Córdoba, who had requested 10 years in prison for the head of the association and between 5 and 6 years for the other 15 defendants, several of them relatives of the " Argentine Madoff".

In turn, the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP), the plaintiff in the case, requested 12 years in prison for Blaksley Señorans, and another of the private complaints requested 18 years.

While Blaksley's lawyer, Mariano José Varela, requested his acquittal.

In his last words, the businessman thanked the court for having listened to him and assumed that he made the company's decisions.

However, he did not manage to take off the others involved. 

"We are more than legally satisfied because they condemned him for everything we had raised. We also understand that he

, "explains one of the victims' lawyers, Víctor Varone, to

.

Along the same lines as Varone, Mangano believes that "it is a very important sentence because it addresses the patrimonial issue with great centrality."

Although the ruling does not end the cases against the "Argentine Madoff", since other international operations that were not tried are being investigated. 

In fact, another of the lawyers in the private lawsuit, Mariano Moyano, argued that this ruling is a "first step" because

, of which he represents around 400. He is already processing cases in the

to come up with the money. 

"That they already recognize that there were 311 victims is a very important number in fraud cases and it is a key precedent because this was a

. It requires a more macro analysis of the organizations and comparing cases to warn of deception," Mangano clarifies

.

Blaskley was detained with preventive detention in the Ezeiza prison until in December 2021 he agreed to the domiciliary benefit after paying $391 million bail.

MG

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