Brothers Andres and Roberto Marcelo Matonte are being investigated by the prosecutor’s office due to several complaints of fraud, reported MVD News (TV Ciudad) and confirmed to The Observer Public Ministry sources. Andrés Matonte is the main referee of Uruguay to represent the country in the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
The main investigated is his brother, but there are also complaints against him. Victims of scam They denounced the facts, which date from several months ago to the present.
The prosecution meets these days elements that allow to advance in the investigation; It includes survey of bank secrecy, accounting statements of the complainants and evidence that allows the Matonte brothers to be accused.
According to one of the fraud complaints to which he agreed The ObserverRoberto Matonte asked a woman for money because he was unemployed and told her that he had an idea of setting up a business. The victim had money saved after the sale of a property and agreed to give him that loanon the condition that he pay it back monthly with interest.
In October 2021 bully stopped paying, saying that he had problems with the Central Bank and the Republic Bank. According to the victim, the man made several deposits but she never received them. The supply company that the respondent promised to open with borrowed money does not exist, according to inquiries from the complainant, “for which it was all a deception and stratagem (deceitful action) on the part of the accused,” indicates the police letter.
The modus operandi is reiterated in each caseaccording to sources of the investigation.
The case was revealed by Watchword (Channel 4). According to what was said in that program, for 20 years Marcelo Matonte has been scamming people for more than US $ 200 thousand dollars and invoking his brother, the soccer referee.
The complaints were assigned in the first instance to two prosecutors, who now requested to unify the cases. There was a request to the Directorate of Purge, Prioritization and Assignment (DPA) of the Public Prosecutor’s Office for the case to be investigated for Economic Crimes, but the request was dismissed, a source added. At this time, that address is evaluating whether to unify the causes so that the brothers are investigated by a single prosecutor’s office, after another request that was made this Wednesday.
Bully, head referee
It is physical education teacher and works as such in the BPS club. In 2021 Matonte was the one who directed the most in the Uruguayan Championship, with 19 games.
His story was like this: he started the referee course when he was 20 years old. In 2008 he started the course at the School of Referees and the first practices were in baby soccer matches. From there, he jumped to the training divisions where he served in the Under 14 and Under 15 categories. He also directed women’s soccer matches during that stage of acquiring knowledge.
In 2016 he was in Second and in 2017 he was promoted to First. That same year he was appointed to referee in the South American Under 17 Championship that was held in Lima (Peru).
Already in these years he began to project himself as one of the important referees at the Conmebol level, to later be cited by FIFA for the World Cup, in 2022.
