The relationship between the federal judge Luis Armellawhich investigates Martín Insaurralde and Jesica Cirioand the federal prosecutor in the case, Sergio Mola reached a peak of maximum tension.
Mola accuses Armella of delay the causebut it is not the only difference. They also disagree about the arrest warrants of the suspects promoted by the prosecutor and on the exclusion of the second wife of the former official, Carolina Alvarezin a key accounting expert report that will determine whether there was illicit enrichment by the former mayor.
The roles of both are different; The prosecutor accuses, pushes the accusation and pushes the case, and the judge must evaluate the evidence and grant or not grant the parties’ requests.
The differences in outlook go far beyond procedural aspects. Prosecutor Sergio Mola asked to investigate Insaurralde and Judge Armella did not make room to that request.
Last Friday, Mola asked stop Insaurralde and Jesica Cirioex-wife of the former mayor, understanding that they can escape justice or harm the investigation.
The determining factor for the arrest request was the dissemination of the videos of Cirio surrounded by wads of dollars in heat-sealed packages, hidden in the dressing room of the house she shared with Insaurralde.
The prosecutor’s office officials were fed up. “If they have this money hidden in a closet, how much more will they have invested or deposited in other areas,” they wonder.
Before, once again, “they make fun of justice,” the prosecutor’s office decided to act on the presumption that the accused were cheating on them. laughing in the faceas recognized by those close to the officials of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The request for the arrest of Insaurralde and Cirio must be read in the light of the prosecutor’s indignation, rather than in the logic of the cold letter of the law.
Judge Armella does not contemplate granting the arrest request. He is not willing to move in this direction. He will continue with the imprint he gave to the cause during the last year.
Next week it will take place an almost certain rejection to the prosecutor’s claim and will pay the corresponding cost before public opinion.
Investigators estimate, based on the images, that there could be about $10 million in the locker room.
Mola had already been insisting since last year with the request for an investigation of Martin Insaurraldewhose last political position was being Chief of Staff of Axel Kicillof.
The investigation was prepared by Mola together with his colleague Diego Velasco of Procelac, which is the prosecutor’s office specialized in money laundering. The asset report that the prosecutors reconstructed was lapidary.
They detected tens of millions of unjustified expensesonly from the trips abroad that Insaurralde made; impossible to cover with his salary as a public employee of the province of Buenos Aires.
They also discovered alleged negotiations with municipal contractors, investigated alleged front men and charged children, Insaurralde’s second wife, Carolina Alvarezand other relatives.
It was the moment when Argentina was playing in Paris for the approval of its qualification in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)which evaluates countries on their anti-money laundering policies.
The Financial Information Unitthen in charge of Ignacio Yacobuccihad also asked to investigate Insaurralde and Cirio for laundering and illicit enrichment, but the national government stopped them and fired Yacobucci’s second, Manuel Tessio.
The prosecution differed and asked to investigate Insaurralde for these crimes with the elements it had at that time. Almost a year has passed and now it has more items to advance against Cirio and the rest of the accused. A new request for an investigation is already being prepared.
But none of this will happen until an accounting audit is completed, which will supposedly end on July 17, with 75 expertise pointswhich will determine whether or not Insaurralde, Cirio and the rest of the defendants can justify their expenses.
Until now, the official and party experts have jointly signed the responses to the expert points. There would be five left to complete the work and the defense lawyers are confident that the result will favor them.
It is at least a doubtful question if you look at the video of the millionaire locker room in detail. Therefore, Cirio’s will to exclude it as evidence and mention that his appearance is the product of an extortion plot.
Take the video of the case and exclude the raid on his house, where They found drugs and weapons, It is part of their defense strategy.
The expertise
But the differences between Judge Armella and the prosecutor also go through an expert opinion regarding the assets that include Carolina Álvarez, Insaurralde’s second wife.
Insaurralde first married Liana Toledo, daughter of the former mayor of Lomas de Zamora. Hugo Toledo and mother of Martín and Rodrigo, her first two children. Their assets and income are also in the crosshairs. The woman is an official at the other federal court in Lomas de Zamora headed by Federico Villena.
Later, Insaurralde formed a pair with Carolina Alvarez, who was the wife of Liana’s brother, Leandro Toledo. That is, he fell in love with his ex-sister-in-law.
They both had Bautista, the former mayor’s third child. In 2008 they decided to separate.
Later, the former mayor of Lomas de Zamora married Jesica Wanda Cirio, who is being investigated in this case, along with Sofía Clerici, the “travel companion” with whom they sailed on the yacht Bandido through the Mediterranean in Marbella in 2023.
That yacht trip was the trigger for the judicial investigation for money laundering and illicit enrichment.
Judge Armella understood that Insaurralde’s ex-wife, Carolina Alvarez, is not accused in the case in which the assets of the former official are being investigated and excluded her from the accounting expert opinion.
The resolution surprised the Financial Information Unit, the prosecutor’s office of Sergio Mola and the complainants of Poder Ciudadano, who They appealed this decision.
The judge rejected the appeal and now the matter is in court. Federal Chamber of La Platawhich must decide whether or not to move forward with the analysis of Álvarez’s assets.
Judge Armella argues that the period for which Insaurralde is being investigated is from 2009, when he was mayor of Lomas de Zamora onwards; That is why we must exclude Álvarez’s purchase of the land where the house in San Vicente was built, which dates back to 2006.
But prosecutors believe otherwise. They mention that Álvarez is accused as a front man of Insaurralde for acquiring those lands in his name.
Diego Iglesias, who is the prosecutor before the La Plata Chamber that must decide on the matter, supported Mola’s claim. He said that it was necessary to include an investigation in the expert opinion to determine the origin of the funds with which the land was acquired in which he then rose the Insaurralde mansion in San Vicente, around which Álvarez appears mentioned.
Among what is going to be analyzed is an alleged loan or donation of US$250,000 that Insaurralde would have done to Cirio and they will seek to determine the origins of those funds.
It will also be analyzed how the trip made in 2023 by Insaurralde to Marbellawhen he shared a week with Clérici in a luxury villa and sailed on the yacht Bandit while drinking champagne in the Mediterranean.
Another issue that will be delved into is how he paid for the plane tickets with which he made a hundred flights, since his blank income does not allow him to pay for them. Likewise, the acquisition mechanism of the San Vicente farm will be evaluated, where the former mayor lived with Cirio, and the purchase of luxury vehicles that he and some collaborators used.
That is where Álvarez was included. The prosecutor asked in one of the points of expertise to “determine and explain in particular whether, according to the income declared by Carolina Alvarez tax withholdings and consumption declared in the period, had the economic capacity to meet the payment of 26,000 US dollars as of May 11, 2006.”
Prosecutor Iglesias defended the inclusion of Álvarez and said that it is difficult to understand Judge Armella’s decision to leave her out of the case. “It is difficult to understand that the judge, contradicting everything he had previously stated, even dictating important measures regarding Álvarez, such as the precautionary measure before the investigation, now simply maintains that she is not charged, and leaves the expert point relating to her out of the expert opinion,” he noted.
This difference will now be the one that the Federal Chamber of La Plata must now settle, and the result of this conflict will determine whether or not the accounting expert report that is about to conclude will have to be completed later.
