The Justice will announce this Thursday the verdict in the trial that follows the businessman Enrique Blaksley Señoransknown as the “Argentine Madoff”, accused of being head of an illegal association that defrauded more than 300 savers for about 185 million pesos through signature Hope Founds between 2007 and 2016judicial sources reported.
After a debate that lasted forr more than two years, since it started in February 2021, the Federal Oral Court (TOF) 4 resumed the process at 9.30first with the “last words” of 2 of the 16 defendants and, after a quarter intermission, at 13.30 the ruling will be known.
In the arguments stage, which took place between September and the end of last year, the trial prosecutorAbel Córdoba, requested 10 years in prison for Blaksley (58) for considering him head of the illicit association, while it required penalties of between 5 and 6 years for the other 15 defendantsseveral of them relatives of the “Argentine Madoff”.
In turn, the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP), plaintiff in the case through the lawyers Santiago Lozano and Ramiro Buján, requested 12 years in prison for the main defendantwhile another of the private complaints requested 18 years.
For her part, the defending of Blaksley, in charge of the lawyer Mariano José Varela, requested his absolution.
In that sense, his own businessman thanked in his “last words” for having been heard by the court during the debate – in which he declared three times -, he assumed that he made the firm’s decisions and demanded that justice be done.
Blaskley was imprisoned in the Ezeiza prison and in March 2021 the court granted him a remand in pretrial detention in a home, although it is measure was only finalized in December lastwhen the businessman managed to gather enough assets and money to pay the bail.
Meanwhile, Mariano Moyano, one of the lawyers in the private lawsuit, told Télam that the ruling that will be announced today is “very important”, but, in turn, a “first step” since there are more victims abroad in Argentina – he estimated about 800 -, of which his study represents about 400.
In fact, the lawyer promotes causes abroad, such as the Virgin Islandsin an attempt to find where the money from the million-dollar scams was taken.
For the accusers, Blaksley led a criminal organization that committed repeated scams related to the illegal collection of money from savers and then, in addition, commit crimes related to the tax evasion and money laundering.
Blaksley and the rest of the defendants were sent to trial in July 2020 by decision of the federal judge Maria Serviniwho granted the request of the federal prosecutor 12, Maria Alejandra Mangano; and the prosecutor Maria Laura Roteta, of the Office of the Prosecutor for Economic Crime and Money Laundering (Procelac).
The businessman, who followed the trial virtually from the Ezeiza prison, He is accused of having committed 318 scams, after having captured savings from the public without being authorized to do so.
He is also accused of original asset laundering and two acts of fraudulent insolvency, that is to say make goods disappear of its patrimony or decrease its value to avoid the fulfillment of obligations.
Among the defendants are also the Blaksley’s brother-in-law and Hope Funds administrative manager, Federico Dolinkué; the person in charge of forming companies abroad, Alejandro Miguel Carozzino; and the commercial manager, his sister-in-law Verónica Vegathe businessman’s brothers Francisco, Maria Rita and Juan Pablo Blaksley.
According to the investigation, Blaksley, with the collaboration of Carozzino, Dolinkue and Vega, would have set up a complex business structure that used both to defraud privateas well as from the national treasury, as indicated in the indictment when the case came to trial.
According to the investigation, the illegal association, which operated between 2007 and 2016 and had members who, from their respective roles, contributed to the embezzlement, and also for around 60 commercial companies, many of them incorporated in the United States and Panama.
In May 2021, Blaksley testified at trial and tried to improve the situation of the rest of the defendants, by assuming to have been the owner of all the shares of Hope Funds, although he affirmed that “never in his life” did he imagine defrauding his clients.
Source: Ambito
