This Thursday is the deadline for the Public Ministry file an accusation or dismiss the case opened against the Atlas Bank –part of the business group that also makes up the newspaper ABC Color– based on a complaint filed by the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol), which accuses that banking entity of laundering money diverted from that sports organization by its late former president Nicolás Léoz.
The case, which has been classified by Atlas lawyers as an act of persecution by government allies against entities linked to a media critical of power, took an unexpected turn this week with the publication of a agreement signed by Conmebol and Léoz’s heirs in 2020 which, according to the bank’s legal defenders, extinguishes the case.
Read more: Alejandro Domínguez’s hidden agreements with the Leoz family
This agreement, signed by the president of Conmebol, Alejandro Domínguez, indicates that Conmebol withdrew from any civil, criminal, administrative or action of any nature against Léoz’s successors for the conduct attributed to him in exchange for a compensation of just over 51 million dollars from the family to the football organization.
With this payment, according to the agreement, Conmebol compensates for the damage to its assets that it attributes to Léoz.
However, despite the existence of that agreement, in 2021 the lawyer Claudio Loverarepresentative of Conmebol, filed an unnamed complaint with the alleged objective of recovering funds diverted by Léoz. Although it operated in several banks in the country, only Atlas was investigated.
Attorney General anticipated accusation, according to lawyer
In communication with ABC Cardinal this Thursday, the lawyer Enrique Kronawetterlegal representative of Banco Atlas, reiterated questions about the cause and the actions of both Lovera and the prosecutors who were or are in charge of the investigation.
“Lovera from Conmebol gave instructions (to the Prosecutor’s Office) and left a record of how to involve Atlas,” he said. “This cause has been directed from beginning to end, they want to take us for stupid.”
Read more: Conmebol and hidden agreements: the key that overturns the criminal case against Atlas
Kronawetter said he was convinced that the Prosecutor’s Office will present an accusation against Atlas before the deadline expires today and, as evidence of this supposedly imminent accusation, he pointed to statements made yesterday by the State Attorney General, Emiliano Rolónafter a meeting he had with the president Santiago Pena.
When asked about the reparation agreement signed in 2020 by Conmebol with Léoz’s heirs and the impact that its existence could have on the case against Atlas, Attorney General Rolón said that these documents must be analyzed in the context of a preliminary hearing.
“The prosecution will have the right, the operational tax agents, to present the final position tomorrow that has to do with the preparatory stage. That final position must be discussed in the preliminary hearing or in the intermediate stage through the corresponding judge and finally the judge is the one who says the law,” said Rolón.
Taking into account that a preliminary hearing cannot be held without the Prosecutor’s Office first presenting a conclusive accusatory act, the attorney general implicitly assumed as a fact that an indictment will be presented, Kronawetter argued.
Agreement extinguishes case against Atlas, affirms
The lawyer for Banco Atlas commented that last night he presented to the Judiciary a action extinction incident against the banking entity “for the presentation and knowledge of that reparation agreement” between Conmebol and the Léoz.
“This agreement eliminates the figure of any punishable conduct attributed to the Léoz,” he explained. “Conmebol agreed that there is no claim, not even a future one. The figure of the preceding event disappears and we cannot speak of laundering.”
Read more: Hidden pact: Conmebol “exonerated” the Leoz family of any punishable act
He added that, in his opinion, the conduct of Conmebol in the context of the case against Atlas could be considered “false complaint” and insisted that, with its own actions, Conmebol has demonstrated that the fact that it attributes to Atlas in its complaint “did not exist.”
“It is another example of how cases are set up and the function of the Public Ministry is perverted. Stick and prison for the adversaries of the power in power and money for those who are on their side,” he stressed and described this as a “perverse case of selective persecution” on the part of a “perverse and cowardly authority that hits and does not show its face.”
“Conspiracy to persecute innocents”
Kronawetter insisted that the Prosecutor’s Office works “with those who are currently in charge of Conmebol” in what he described as an attempt to “teach a lesson” for publications made by ABC Color against the interests of the authorities of the sports entity.
“They should dedicate themselves to distorting the elements that arise against public acts and not persecute institutions that simply carry out their investigative work,” he stressed.
“It is a conspiracy to persecute innocent people,” he emphasized.
