The investigation into the alleged
fraud with the debit cards administered by Julio “Chocolate” Rigau
begins to escalate in the hierarchical positions of the Buenos Aires Chamber of Deputies.
Prosecutor Betina Lacky
summoned the leadership of the Administrative Secretariat of that body to testify,
where the 48 alleged employees from whom the leader of the PJ of La Plata collected their salaries were hired, a maneuver that allowed him to collect more than 23 million pesos monthly.
The judicial decision affects around twenty employees of the Administrative Secretariat of the lower house.
In addition,
the investigation also advances on the “senators track”
: the prosecutor's office also summoned 5 owners of the bank access cards that they gave to a couple of militants who did the same as Rigau, but in the other provincial legislative body.
The operation was carried out with
39 accounts of supposed employees
and money was withdrawn from ATMs in the capital of Buenos Aires.
They were detected in the footage of the entity's pits when
they crossed paths with Rigau at dawn.
And they greeted each other in a kind and friendly manner.
They knew each other because
they were “colleagues”:
“Chocolate” and the pair of Senate agents
were in charge of raising money
.
It is presumed that to make money for political activities of the main representation spaces:
PJ, UCR, PRO
.
But for now that is a presumption.
According to an opinion accessed by
Clarín
, the testimonials will be held between
March 12 and April 10,
in groups of between three and four people in the Fiscal Investigation Unit No. 2 of La Plata.
Officials with relevant positions in Deputies appear in the list.
Lacky wants to know the version of the Treasurer of the Chamber, Marcelo Auziverría;
the Director of Personnel, Pablo Parente;
of the head of Auxiliary Services, Tomasina Papaleo and of the director of Legal and Technical, Eduardo Vito Resiglione.
On September 8, 2023, Rigau was arrested when he was withdrawing money at a BAPRO branch on 7 and 54. He had the 48 debit cards and 2.3 million pesos in a consortium bag.
After a complicated judicial journey - there was a controversial ruling that requested the annulment of the case - he was
arrested for defrauding the State
and for being part of a gang that would have illegally extracted at least
800 million pesos of public funds.
Also detained in the case and confirmed in preventive detention are the former Chief of Personnel of the Chamber,
Claudio Albini, and his son, Facundo, representative of the Provincial Renewal Front
and councilor elected last October.
He was part of the list headed by Julio Alak (now mayor of La Plata) and which had the support of Axel Kicillof.
He could not take office on the La Plata Council because he was in a cell.
They are
charged with fraud and illicit association.
Their names appeared in conversations and chats on the collector's phone.
The suspicion is that the corruption network does not end there.
The "chocolates" of the Senate
In December, Lacky asked BAPRO for all the footage where Rigau could be seen.
There he verified that two people – a man and a woman – coincided with the pointer and
verified that they did the same with plastic from the Senate Chamber
.
In the file he has the photos, but not the names.
However, a journalistic investigation identified who would be the “chocolates” of the Senate.
And then, a lawyer presented himself as a defender of Hugo Muguerza and María Josefina Ortellado.
They were those targeted by the note published by La Nación.
More: the lawyer asked that they be charged so that they do not have to testify as witnesses.
He did the same with five other cardholders.
She asked to assist them when “they are not accused of any crime,” as the prosecutor explained in her request for testimony.
They must appear in Court on the date set by the judicial official.
They are obliged to tell the truth, according to the Code of Procedure and cannot refuse the request.
Muguerza and Ortellado are not on the list of testimonials
.
But the heads of Deputies who must go through the La Plata criminal jurisdiction have a date and time.
On March 18 at 11, Resiglione will sit down.
Auziverria, the Treasurer, will go on the 20th at 10:30.
Papaleo (Auxiliary services) has a shift on April 3 at 11:30 and Parente (Personnel) has a shift on the 5th of that month at the same time.
When the alleged employees of Deputies came to the prosecutor's office, it was always as witnesses.
Almost everyone said the same thing, as if it were a script
.
In short: they gave him the instrument to charge Rigau out of convenience, out of habit, to not “go to the center” or because they trusted the man who declared he was an electrician for that legislative body.
Except for one, who admitted not knowing “Chocolate” and not knowing that he had an account opened in the bank as an employee of the Chamber.
Investigators seek to climb the hierarchical rungs to access the data they consider key:
who or who ordered and organized this structure of trick agents
and night banking operators that defrauded the state administration.
There is
evidence of $800 million lost from Deputies and $300 million per year from the Senate.