The CEO of Generación Zoe, Leonardo Cositorto, was investigated this Monday by the justice system in a case in which he is accused of alleged illicit association and repeated scams which, according to the preliminary investigation, would have affected defrauded savers through the system known as Ponzi or pyramidal.
The case is being investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office of the Cordoba city of Villa María, led by Juliana Companys, who will also have a chapter in the province of currentsbecause must also declare in the court of Goya.
This Monday, when questioned by the Cordovan prosecutor, the accused assured “have nothing to do with Villa Maria“, Companys told the press.
The judicial official said that the defendant’s defense requested his release, but “it was rejected”.
In that town in eastern Córdoba, Cositorto must answer for being responsible for 176 alleged scams, which 94 victims reported, explained the prosecutor.
The CEO of Generación Zoe is being held in the Bouwer prison, after his arrival in the country after being extradited from the Dominican Republic.
Companys stressed that the investigation was carried out in person and not virtually, because the declaration for the modules allowed by the Zoom platform was going to be too long.
Miguel Ángel Pierri, one of the lawyers for the leader of Generación Zoe, said that “we had an extensive investigative statement, for almost three and a half hours, answered all the questions of the prosecution. From a defense point of view I think it was a very good statement.”
“With Villa María we have nothing to do,” he said in line with what his client said.
Prosecutor Companys commented that Cositorto’s transfer to the town of Goya in Corrientes was requested “because of an accusation that he has there, and that transfer was authorized“.
Regarding the penalties that correspond if the accused is found guilty, the official warned: “The scam goes from six months to six years in prison and the illicit association goes from three to 10 years and qualified is five years at least for the leaders.”
Along with Cositorto, he was also investigated Maximilian Batistaanother of the defendants related to the organization, although the latter chose not to testify.
The prosecutor confirmed that the investigation is continuing and that within 20 days the leader of the association would be summoned again, since “new complaints could arise.”
On the other hand, a prosecutor from the province of jump also summoned Cositorto to an indictment hearing initially scheduled for May 9, within the framework of an investigation by 38 complaints for repeated fraud and illicit association located in that province.
Sources from the Salta Public Ministry reported that the Criminal Prosecutor of the Complex Economic Crimes Unit (UDEC), Ana Inés Salinas Odorisio, summoned for the May 9 the leader of Generation Zoe to an indictment hearing. Salinas Odorisio asked the Court of Guarantees 5 to issue a warrant for the transfer of Cositorto from Córdoba to Salta.
The criminal prosecutor investigates 38 complaints for repeated fraud and illicit association filed in Salta against the leader of Generación Zoe, who is being held by the Villa María Second Investigation Prosecutor’s Office, in Córdoba.
Cositorto was arrested by Interpol on April 4 after remaining as a fugitive, and with an international arrest warrant, since February 18 when multiple raids were carried out based on complaints from Villa María savers who had not recovered their investments. .
In operations ordered weeks ago by the prosecutor Companys in six homes in Buenos Aires, documents, electronic elements and US$565,000 and $63,000 were seized.
According to what is known of the different causes involving Zoe, between March and November 2021 14 commercial companies were createdsome of them the same day.
Among these are Prioli Construcciones, Generación Zoe, Universidad del Trading and Zoe Construcciones, established on March 18, 2021, and with movements of more than US$ 7 million detected so far.
In addition, the investigators verified that, in October 2020, Cositorto canceled a debt that had been classified as “unrecoverable” by the Central Bank where it was listed as “delinquent and uncollectible”, added the sources of the case.
Federal Judge Ariel Lijo is also conducting an investigation for alleged money laundering of the Zoe holding company.
The General Inspection of Justice (IGJ) also initiated legal actions against Generación Zoe that are filed in the national courts of First Instance in Commercial Matters Number 14, Secretariat 28; and Number 26, Secretariat 51.
