“It should be the order to declare”. Brief and concise is the order contained in one of the documents to which the Alianza Paraguay journalistic project had access. This is not a legal suggestion, but from an external instruction followed by the Public Ministry, an institution that, according to article 266 of the National Constitutionshould be autonomous but in the case against Banco Atlas for alleged money laundering it functioned as a paperwork office for the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol), chaired by Alejandro Dominguez.
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The mechanics of the serious interference were indelibly recorded in the metadata of the files; that is, in the digital history that identifies the original author and the times of creation. The scheme was rude, but above all violating of the due process that the Prosecutor’s Office should have guaranteed: Claudio Federico Lovera Velázquez, Conmebol lawyer, in charge of Alejandro Dominguezwrote the writings. Then, he sent them to the personal Gmail of the Economic Crimes Prosecutor’s Office. Liliana Alcarazwho forwarded the files to his official Public Ministry account to give them legal validity.
Lawyer who dictated the legal strategy
He July 1, 2021 It is a key date. That day, it took Claudio Lovera just 9 minutes to prepare a document titled “BANK SECRET“. The metadata confirms its authorship. The file arrived in the private email of Liliana Alcaraz and immediately that same July 1, 2021she forwarded the document to the institutional messaging of the Public Ministry.
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Beyond the filtration, what evidences the submission is the content. The lawyer of Conmebol, chaired by Alejandro Domingueznot only suggested steps, but dictated the interpretation of the law. In the final paragraph, Lovera wrote: “The relevant information is in red, precisely the Public Ministry is excepted by a special law No. 5787/16…”.
Minutes later, the prosecutors Liliana Alcaraz and Francisco Manuel Cabrera Sanabria they sent that same one July 1, 2021 an official letter to the Superintendency of Banks (SIB) that was a faithful copy, word for word, of the instructions of Claudio Lovera, Conmebol lawyer in charge of Alejandro Dominguez. The Prosecutor’s Office did not even bother to write its own reasons; He simply put official letterhead to Conmebol’s arguments to pressure the delivery of confidential information.
A sustained and “scripted” chase
Far from being an isolated event, this dynamic of “copy and paste” External orders extended to other occasions. In March 2022, a new file emerged titled “Witnesses – SIB officials”. The metadata reveals that Claudio Loveralawyer for Conmebol, chaired by Alejandro Dominguezworked on it for more than seven hours.
This document, with the date of last modification March 14, 2022 on the part of Claudio Lovera Velázquez It is a script for the interrogations that former prosecutor Liliana Alcaraz sent to herself on March 16, 2022.
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The lawyer hired by Alejandro Dominguez indicated which officials should declare first –“in order, according to who was closest to the supervisory tasks”– and put together a chronological account of events to force the thesis of money laundering. It even included notes on what had to be remembered to support the setup, where everything was aiming for the Atlas Bank.
The “fingerprint” as irrefutable proof
The relevance of metadata in this investigation is not a journalistic whim; It is the same technical standard that the Public Ministry uses today to prosecute the former president Mario Abdo Benítez and former officials of his government.
In this case, the Prosecutor’s Office – through the Strategic Information Analysis Directorate (DAIE), directed by Gunter Krone – based its accusation precisely on the verification of emails and attached documents. If for the Public Ministry the “fingerprint” is sufficient proof of induction to a subordinate to committing a punishable act (art. 318 of the CP), false report (Art. 289 of the Penal Code-CP), simulation of a punishable act (Art. 291 of the CP), usurpation of public functions (Art. 241 of the CP) and criminal association (Art. 239 of the CP)the records that link the Conmebol lawyer with the former prosecutor Alcaraz acquire unquestionable legal and technical weight.
The slip that anticipated the scheme
The seriousness of these leaks transcends the court case. Liliana Alcarazwho according to this devastating evidence operated under the dictation of the lawyer of Conmebol, chaired by Alejandro Domínguez, while she served as prosecutor, is today the highest authority of the Secretariat for the Prevention of Money or Assets Laundering (Seprelad). For his part, Francisco Cabrera, who signed the official letter July 1, 2021 In accordance with the instructions of lawyer Lovera Velázquez, he continues even today as a fiscal agent intervening in the case, where Lovera Velázquez himself is a plaintiff for Conmebol.
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The evidence collected by Alianza Paraguay suggests that the “investigation” was not born from an independent technical analysis, but from an external script designed to instrumentalize criminal justice. In this process, The Public Ministry did not act as a representative of society, but as the executing arm of a script drafted by Conmebol.
He denies interference and says he was only visiting the tax headquarters
The Conmebol lawyer Claudio Lovera Yesterday he denied any instructions for the Prosecutor’s Office, specifically to the former agent Liliana Alcaraz, despite irrefutable evidence. “No instructions on what to do, I have always expressed my position regarding the issue of the data I present and for that one goes to the Public Ministry,” he said.
He noted that he always promoted the case, but with visits to the tax headquarters. “When you go to the Public Ministry you also express your concerns and make inquiries, in this way the case is promoted“, he indicated. According to the lawyer, the only thing he remembers is that he always expressed his concern regarding the progress and this was often verbal or written. He did not remember meetings with former prosecutor Liliana Alcaraz. “It’s been almost six years and like six prosecutors passed. He attended all the units,” he indicated.
ABC also tried to obtain the version of former prosecutor Liliana Alcaraz, but she did not answer the calls or respond to the messages.
*Alianza Paraguay is an international research project made up of journalists from different media outlets in Latin America and Europe. The team accessed dozens of documents related to key court cases in Paraguay.
