The Attorney for Economic Crime and Money Laundering (PROCELAC), headed by federal prosecutor Diego Velasco, charged and criminally denounced Judge Federico Villena, substitute of the Federal Court of Lomas de Zamora . Villena he was saved on several occasions by Kirchnerism in the Council of the Judiciary against complaints of poor performance that falls on him.
On this occasion, the anti-money laundering prosecutor’s office detected, based on a report from the Financial Information Unit (FIU), movements of money inconsistent for US $ 400,000 that it would be only the beginning of a major laundering maneuver, since it was denounced that the property that I bought has a higher value.
Villena is the same judge that allowed the communications of the “King of Ephedrine” Roberto Segovia to be intercepted in the Ezeiza prison during Macri’s administration and after the change of government in 2019, he turned 180 degrees and began to denounce the alleged illegal intelligence of the AFI of Macri in that prison and other places, among other controversial actions. In an interview with ClarionThe magistrate denied prosecutors’ accusations.
The PROCELAC complaint, to which it agreed Clarion, also bears the signature of the prosecutor Laura Roteta and revealed in 33 pages, the “step by step” of a structure that was confirmed by the FIU. The purchase of a house with a declared value that would be less than the real one, the simulation of loans in dollarsand the suspicion of a real estate project that “would allow the laundering of millionaire sums”, assured judicial sources, along with an estate that is under suspicion.
Under suspicion is the purchase of the property on Zuviría street in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Flores on October 30, 2020. The seller and a proxy who completed the business participated in the purchase-sale. The judge delivered $400,000 cash80% of that money (US$ 322,562.72) was justified through mutual agreements signed with people who lacked economic capacity, and the remaining 20% with operations for the sale of movable and immovable property, which yielded a set of inconsistencies according to the FIU.
The images published by the real estate company about the house of Judge Federico Villena, under investigation by PROCELAC
The alleged loans would be linked, as detailed by the FIU, to four individuals and a company. The amounts vary, ranging from $90,000 to $50,000, $26,657, $12,000, $72,562 and $60,000. “The patrimonial profile would show that a few of them, would not have the economic capacity to grant the loans in question” and that they were not declared “which generates suspicion about their true existence”, says the complaint.
An example: one of the people who gave money to Villena had during the year 2020 a net profit of taxes and withholdings of $4,395,493; “Therefore, if the amount loaned” to the judge “had been $3,537,500 (amount equivalent to US$50,000 according to the exchange rate on the date of the transaction), this would represent approximately 80% of recorded income.
when he had to explain the rest of the money, the magistrate declared the sale of an AUDI A4 car for $3,400,000 (converted to US$17,560); the sale of an apartment located on 1600 Rivadavia Street for US$35,000 (according to the sales ticket dated 10/29/2020), the sale of shares for an amount of US$13,224.
However, prosecutor Velasco detailed, the sale of the Rivadavia street apartment “would not be real because it remains under the ownership of Federico Villena, while the transfer of the car would have only taken place nine months later of the real estate operation “and previously, it would have been delivered to a concessionaire in October 2020”.
The imputation for laundering maintains that “Villena would have simulated various operations of sale of goods and the realization of money mutuals, to put into circulation in the formal market various sums of money of allegedly spurious origin and thus be able to finalize the acquisition of the property, ensuring that the funds acquire the appearance of legality.
The property for which Federico Villena was denounced
Behind the purchase of the house there are two more questions: its value and that it would hide the participation in a superior real estate business. PROCELAC denounced that the property on Zuviría Street “was declared for a value that would not be real either (US$400,000) since the value originally published for sale was $790,000, a substantially higher price. Two more surveys were carried out: they yielded US$890,000 and US$800,000.
“Taking into account the time, the values of the different publications, the characteristics and descriptions of the property (refurbished to new), possibility is questioned that the acquisition of the house was for the sum of US$400,000,” prosecutor Velasco denounced.
The FIU itself observed a difference between the deeded purchase price equivalent to $33,400,000 and the reference real estate value (VIR) “whose amount is established based on the characteristics of the property, and which, in this case, amounted to $49,687,727.9”. The purpose of the VIR is to avoid the possibility of real estate undervaluation, giving transparency to real estate transactions in order to avoid tax evasion.
The deed recorded that the property required repairs to make it habitable. However, the head of PROCELAC indicated “in principle, the property does not seem to require major improvements” and “it is noted that the property would have been remodeled 6 years earlier.” Everything allows “at least to suspect that this is, in principle, uncertain”.
Another suspicion was marked on the property. There is a real estate group that published an undertaking where it contemplates a triple plot of land that includes the Villena property, “emphasizing that it would be ideal for the development of a condominium/club/sports campus.” The published price is US$3,100,000. , the original cadastral plans of the three properties in question were even published, “which implies an acceptance of the investment option of its holders“, emphasizes the complaint.
For all these reasons, PROCELAC charged and denounced Villena. The case is filed in the Court that subrogates Julián Ercolini with the intervention of the prosecutor Eduardo Taiano.
