Raids, recusals, different requests for information and new complaints this week were added to the charges against judges, Juntos por el Cambio officials and businessmen on the trip to Lago Escondido who were charged with crimes related to the payment and acceptance of gifts.
The raids had to do with the case initiated in Bariloche. One of the measures occurred within the framework of the case in which the prosecutor María Cándida Etchepare charged the judges and officials who participated in the trip to the South. The official had promoted the investigation after carrying out a preliminary investigation in which the president of the Hidden Lake SA company, which is the one that manages Lago Escondido, of the British magnate Joe Lewis, testified.
“The named complied with the requirement made and provided the invoices issued in favor of some of those denounced for the sum of
U$D 605 each, which according to the price prevailing on October 28 of the current year in which they were issued, would be equivalent to $97,707.5”, the prosecutor said. However, she said there is “a clear discrepancy” with the dates of the trip. The accommodation was on October 13, 14 and 15, but the receipts date from the 28th. The Federal Police also raided the offices and hangar of Flyzar, in San Fernando, the company that owns the plane in which they traveled to Bariloche . Neither did the reported amounts satisfy the prosecutor.
Those investigated in this case are judges Julián Ercolini, Pablo Yadarola, Pablo Cayssials and Carlos Mahiques; the Buenos Aires attorney general, Juan Bautista Mahiques; the Minister of Justice and Security of the City, Marcelo D’Alessandro; former Intelligence agent Leonardo Bergroth and consultant Tomás Reinke. The prosecutor also charged Pablo César Casey, director of Grupo Clarín SA, and Jorge Rendo, CEO of the same media outlet. These would be the ones who would have financed the trip.
The investigation also advanced on the request to investigate the work of the magistrates during the days they traveled to the South. The Criminal Cassation Chamber answered in Justice that “it does not arise” that Carlos Mahiques “had used a license or justification of absences for October 13, 14 and 15.” However, he signed files, something that is forbidden to do more than 40 kilometers away. The same response came from the Criminal and Correctional Court in the case of Julián Ercolini, who also did not request a license.
The mother of one of the victims of the sinking of the ARA San Juan submarine denounced Carlos Mahiques for the alleged signing of a sentence during one of the days he traveled. The complaint requested that Mahiques be separated preventively from the case that should review the situation of former President Mauricio Macri for alleged illegal espionage, a hearing that should take place on December 21.
In addition, the subsequent rulings of these magistrates are also beginning to be targeted. Pablo Cayssials ruled in favor of the Telecom company –of the Clarín group– after the trip. It is a favorable millionaire ruling for the company to which the State claimed a historical debt. In the images of the arrival in Bariloche, the judges are seen with Telecom bags.
On another track, different challenges also began to run. The vice president was the first to use this resource in a case initiated by AFIP “persecution” of her and her family during the administration of Mauricio Macri, since he is in charge of Ercolini. This body, now in charge of Carlos Castagneto, was the second to file a challenge, but against Cayssials, and requested his withdrawal in two cases in which the companies Papel Prensa and Telecom filed lawsuits against the collecting body.
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