Martin Insaurralde and Sofia Clerici on their trip to Marbella
Federal prosecutors Sergio Mola and Diego Velasco requested the investigation of Martín Insaurralde, former mayor of Lomas de Zamora and former chief of staff of the Buenos Aires government of Axel Kicillof, for money laundering and illicit enrichment in the case of the luxury trip he took. to Marbella with Sofía Clerici. However, the model, who was found with $600,000 in her home, was not summoned to testify.
Judicial sources informed Infobae that, in response to the claim, federal judge Ernesto Kreplak ordered Insaurralde to present a justification of his assets within 10 days, as established by law for accusations against public officials for illicit enrichment.
Mola, federal prosecutor of Lomas de Zamora, and Velasco, head of the Office of the Attorney General for Economic Crime and Money Laundering (PROCELAC), made their accusation in a 40-page document accessed by Infobae. There they also requested the investigation of Insaurralde’s ex-wife, Carolina Álvarez, two of his children, Martín and Rodrigo Insaurralde, his nephew, Gastón Barrachina and Víctor Donadío, whose brother was married to Insaurralde’s sister, for money laundering. money considering that they acted as front men to the ocular with their names the true owner of the assets, who was the former mayor of Lomas de Zamora. The Donadío companies were contractors for the municipality of Insaurralde and had national public works.
“Having put into circulation funds from acts of corruption linked to the exercise of the different public functions carried out by Martín Insaurralde, evidenced by situations of incompatibility, conflicts of interest and the appreciable increase in assets that does not find a correlation with his lawful income,” he maintains. the accusation.
And he adds that Insaurralde not only committed illicit enrichment but to pretend to be the true owner of the assets “he intervened in the coordination and control of the logistics of the operations, attributing different roles to people in his family and trusted environment.” “These funds would have their origin in acts of corruption linked to the public positions that he held since at least 2003 and would have been integrated into the formal economic system through mechanisms that hide their true origin,” the prosecutors said.
The case began in October 2023 when the luxury trip that the then Chief of Staff made to Marbella with Clerici on the yacht “Bandido” between September 15 and 20 of that year was made public. From the photos they met, they are seen on the boat drinking champagne and carrying luxury handbags. The trip, according to the tax report, cost 41,087.65 euros and 8,189.30 dollars.
“Although there are indications that suggest that Martín Insaurralde decided from one day to the next to travel there to meet her, such as the fact that the named man took out his ticket unexpectedly one day before leaving Buenos Aires, almost a week after Sofia Clerici had already traveled to the destination to stay with her sister. By virtue of this, we consider that the aforementioned expenses of his stay at the hotel and the yacht ride are directly attributable to Martín Insaurralde,” the prosecutors maintained.
Martin Insaurralde
The fact became known weeks before the presidential election that Javier Milei won and Insaurralde resigned from his position. At the beginning of the case, Clerici and Jésica Cirio, Insaurralde’s former partner, were also investigated. In their ruling, the prosecutors did not accuse them. In the case, various raids were carried out and close to 600 thousand dollars were seized from Clerici’s home. The woman said in the case that it is money from her work as a “companion” and that the AFIP does not have that category to pay taxes. Justice allowed him to enter money laundering but with the dollars frozen.
In his accusation, the prosecutors pointed out the assets that Insaurralde cannot justify with his income as a public official: the purchase of two lots in the closed neighborhood Fincas de San Vicente Club de Chacras with the construction of a house with 841.76 meters of covered surface and semi-covered and a pool 73.40 square meters; the purchase of a house in Lomas de Zamora; the purchase of two high-end cars; a bank account of 8,620,967 pesos between 2011 and 2021; the expenses of the trip to Marbella; and 75 trips abroad for $71,280.40, of which only one was official.
The trips abroad were purchased with a credit card from a Miami tourism agency that does not allow the person paying for them to be traced. Poder Ciudadano, the NGO that acts as plaintiff in the case, indicated that with the request for an investigation they are analyzing initiating a case against Insaurralde in the United States to investigate the case. “This affects the financial system of that country because the expenses are hidden,” they told this medium.
They also pointed out “increases in Insaurralde’s assets that could not be explained by applying the income obtained from its legitimate activity” in 2010 and between 2014 and 2022. The amounts reach almost 1,500,000 pesos per year.
For the Prosecutor’s Office, Insaurralde increased “his assets appreciably, without this being related to the legal income obtained during his public career, at least since his assumption as mayor, on October 28, 2009, until September 30, 2023, facts for which he will be liable for the crime of illicit enrichment.”
“The income from declared economic activities of Martín Insaurralde, basically linked to the performance of his public functions, would not allow him to even remotely explain the ownership or administration of assets to which he appears linked. If we took into account their salaries for their performance as a public official, for the years 2021-2023, the total amount would not reach ARS 20 million. This clearly contradicts the expenses detected for the international trips in which he participated in 2023 and which would have a floor of U$D 82,882.4″, the Prosecutor’s Office detailed in its accusation.
Prosecutors also noted that Insaurralde lived in an apartment in Puerto Madero with Cirio. The accusation indicates that this home was owned by the company Revilier SA, owned by Andrés Enrique Galera, who was convicted of being a front man for the former Secretary of Public Works José López. Galera had a relationship with Donadío, one of those accused of concealing the assets of Insaurralde
In response to the request, Judge Kreplak ordered Insaurralde “to justify, within a period of ten days, the increase in assets recorded there.” After this release, he must decide whether to summon him to the investigation along with the rest of the accused.
