The judicial authorities are keeping an eye on the purchase of a 0 kilometer truck by Ruiz, who is on the tightrope after a scandal broke out with his brother Pablo Ruiz over the diversion of public funds, a fact that ejected him from public office.
Now, Justice has expanded the investigation initiated for the alleged crimes of embezzlement and fraud against the public administration in the scope of the Legislature and the House of Laws.
It is worth remembering that, before being suspended from office by the provincial Legislature, Ruiz had been expelled from the Neuquinizate Front, the political force with which, together with Figueroa, she won last year’s elections, putting an end to the dynasty of the historic Neuquino Popular Movement (MPN).
Neuquén: Justice investigates the vice governor
Days ago, Justice carried out procedures to seize information in the Legislature and in the House of Laws, in the city of Neuquén. The operations were requested by the Economic Crimes Prosecutor’s Office, and are carried out by the chief prosecutor Pablo Vignaroli and the prosecutor of the case Juan Manuel Narvaezwith the support of provincial police personnel.
Also at the request of the MPF, a private home of the coordinator of the House of Laws was raided, in the city of Plottier. All measures were authorized by the guarantee judge Juan Manuel Kees.
The investigation began in the course of this month, at the request of a publication by the newspaper “Río Negro” about an alleged fraudulent maneuver to the detriment of the public administration, through the appointment of personnel in the Legislature by Lieutenant Governor Gloria Ruiz.
Then, on November 20, the representative of Banco Provincia de Neuquén (BPN) filed a complaint with the Economic Crimes Prosecutor’s Office about the existence of facts that could constitute crimes.
Specifically, he indicated that the entity has an area that has among its functions the monitoring of “Politically Exposed Persons” (PEP), called the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Management.
In that context, “Situations linked to Mr. Pablo Antonio Ruíz were detected,” brother of the vice governor and coordinator of the House of Laws. “He received significant accreditations other than his assets from the Legislature for an amount of 29,854,350 pesos,” the complaint indicates. And he specifies that he made “cash withdrawals for 20,600,000 pesos.”
He also points out that “It was noted that Mr. Ruíz used the majority of the funds in his account to establish fixed installments, noticeably increasing their volume from the credits he received outside of his assets.”
The situation was warned to Mr. Ruíz by the banking entity, who reported that the accreditations corresponded to “per diems and programs.”
The Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Management also warned the Legislature on August 21 about the situation. Since then, no more transfers have been made to the personal account of Mr. Ruíz, who to date has 51 million pesos in fixed installments.
Complaint against Pablo Ruiz
Among the reasons for requiring the procedures before the guarantee judge, the chief prosecutor and the prosecutor in the case stated that “beyond the confusion in funds between public and private, Mr. Ruíz successively established fixed installments with almost all of the funds in his account, even after the month of August 2024 where he stopped receiving funds from the Neuquén Legislature other than his assets. That is to say, it obtained economic returns with financial operations whose amounts partially originated from public money.”
For this reason, “we understand that there could be acts of a criminal nature given that it could be considered that, at least, the assumption provided for by Art. 261 of the Penal Code could occur in that there would be a theft of funds entrusted to Mr. Ruíz due to his position and that they made possible an increase in his economic capacity to establish financial instruments (fixed term) that grant him monetary dividends.”
The objective of the procedures in the Legislature and the House of Laws, and the search of the home of the coordinator of the House of Laws, is to seize information in invoices, receipts, remittances and statements of expenses, as well as electronic devices such as telephones. cell phones, computers, notebooks.
Source: Ambito
