The false lawyer Marcelo D’Alessio, imprisoned since 2019 in Ezeiza, was on his way to face a second oral trial for ten acts of extortion and money laundering committed as part of an illicit association, after being sentenced in 2021 to four years in prison .
D’Alessio is imprisoned since 2019 in the Ezeiza prison and from there he followed a first oral trial against him by videoconference, for attempted extortion of a businessman, Daniel Traficante.
The false lawyer was sentenced to four years in prison; now awaits the drawing of the Oral Court that will be in charge of what will be the second trial that he will have to face, in this case for nine acts of extortion and one accusation of money laundering. The process will also take place in the Federal Retirement Courts.
The crimes for which the federal judge Julián Ercolini sent him to trial with other defendants, in a first stage, were investigated in the jurisdiction of the federal Justice of pains.
The then judge of the case in that locality, Alejo Ramos Padilla, arrested the false lawyer and issued the proceedings in the case, although the file later remained in the hands of the interim federal judge of Dolores Martín Bava since Ramos Padilla himself was appointed to lead of the federal court with electoral competence 1 of La Plata.
The cause finally passed to the federal courts of Comodoro Py by order of the Federal Court of Cassation, on December 22.
Based on the tax request made by Juan Pablo Curi in the city of Dolores, Ercolini sent D’Alessio and seven other defendants to trial, including the suspended Mercedes prosecutor, Juan Ignacio Bidone, and the former Buenos Aires commissioner Norberto Degastaldi, for nine cases of illicit association and extortion.
The tenth case they are charged with is laundered and is linked to the existence of the WhatsApp group “Buenos Aires”, found on D’Alessio’s cell phone, through which a group of people coordinated actions to place funds of illicit origin in off-shore accounts.
All are accused of having been part of an illicit association from 2016 to February 2019 that “planned” and, in some cases, “executed without having the power to do so, or order from a competent authority, investigation activities, collection, classification, ordering , storage and analysis of information linked to people, the evolution of legal cases and members of the mass media”.
The facts
The first case corresponds to the facts denounced by the businessman Peter Etchebestwhose public presentation gave rise to the investigation.
D’Alessio “would have illegitimately demanded Pedro Etchebest, on behalf of the federal prosecutor Carlos Ernesto Stornellithe sum of 300,000 dollars in exchange for not being involved in case 9608/2018, publicly known as ‘Notebooks'”, summarizes the prosecutor’s accusation.
To do this, along with other defendants, D’Alessio resorted to “intimidations, threats, simulations and references to contacts and relations with magistrates of the Public Prosecutor’s Officewhich imported a compilation of prior information regarding the offended party and which led the latter to deliver the total sum of US$14,700 in two gastronomic establishments in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires”.
The second case is that of Gonzalo Brusa Dovatformer director of the PDVSA company in Argentina, “who, through actions of coercionwhich imported tasks of collecting information prior to his case, forced him to testify in various journalistic interviews and a testimonial statement at the headquarters of the National Federal Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office 4, under the charge of federal prosecutor Carlos Stornelli” in 2019.
The third case corresponds to Paul Erasmo Barreirowho suffered “extortive maneuvers” in October 2018, also for the “Notebooks” case and in relation to a possible arrest warrant against him and a “large folder” with “things” that linked him to the case, for which at that time the late federal judge Claudio Bonadio had ordered his father arrested.
Case 4 is that of Diego Vestillerowho was targeted by “intimidating and extortive actions” in July 2016, in addition to “money demands and threats with publications in the media”, to force him to “turn over container documentation related to the company Fox Cargo SA, of which he was a director.”
The fifth case has as a victim the lawyer Juan Manuel Ubéiraagainst whom D’Alessio, “within the framework of the illicit association“, would have planned” a hidden camera with the purpose of linking him, through some type of ruse and a methodology similar to that of the agent provocateur, in a possible criminal maneuver that could be framed as “attempted extortion of a prosecutor federal”.
The sixth fact raised to trial is the one that had as its center Jorge Christian Castanon Destefano.
“Marcelo Sebastián D’Alessio was reproached for having carried out, within the framework of the illicit association and in response to an alleged request made by (the prosecutor) Carlos Stornelli, tasks of Information gathering regarding Jorge Christian Castañón, of Peruvian nationality and presumed pilot of the airline United Express, a subsidiary and cabotage company in the United States of United Airlines”.
The call ‘Jaitt Case’ is another of those sent to the trial stage, for which D’Alessio is accused of “having developed, within the framework of the illicit association, tasks of information gathering -identified by the Provincial Commission for Memory as “counterintelligence”-, in relation to Natacha Jaitt and Mirtha Legrand, as well as Messrs. Eduardo Miragaya, Ignacio Viale, Raúl Martins, Gustavo Vera and Gabriel Anello”.
“These tasks took place during the year 2018 and would have been carried out as a result of the statements made by Natacha Jaitt in the television program hosted by Mirtha Legrand in March 2018,” adds the indictment.
The false lawyer will also be judged by the “Fantino Case. Loose Animals”: In this accusation, he is accused of having carried out “investigation and information gathering tasks in an illegitimate manner in relation to the members and/or panelists of the television program ‘Animales Sueltos’, which is broadcast on the América channel and is hosted by the journalist Alejandro Fantino”, as stated in the elevation to partial trial signed by Ercolini.
The ninth fact to be judged will be one that also involves the suspended Prosecutor Bidonealready sentenced to 3 years and 8 months in prison in the same trial that followed D’Alessio last year for the Actions carried out to the detriment of the Trafficking businessman.
“Marcelo Sebastián D’Alessio is accused of having carried out, with the participation of Juan Ignacio Bidone, investigation activities and collection of information in an illegitimate manner both in Argentine and Uruguayan territory in relation to certain companies and individuals,” the resolution states. .
Among them were “Facundo Trias, Martin Ortiz and Manuel Jose Londoño Hernandez. Such maneuvers took place between October 2016 and December 2018,” details the indictment.
The last fact mentioned in the elevation to trial corresponds to maneuvers of alleged money laundering by D’Alessio and others involvedwho shared a group in the WhatsApp messaging system called “Buenos Aires”.
At that point, all are accused of forming a “criminal organization dedicated to negotiating, coordinating and arranging international financial operations several times million in US dollars or euros, which involved funds of illicit origin.”
The elevation to trial was partially resolved since other facts are still under investigation and the situation of other defendants remains to be defined, including the prosecutor Stornelli.
