The Federal Chamber of San Martín ruled that the investigation will continue in Campana and will pass into the hands of Magistrate Adrián González Charvay
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San Martín Federal Chamber decided this Tuesday that the investigation into the purchase of the mansion located in Pilar, awarded to Pablo Toviggino, treasurer of AFA and right-hand man of the mobster Claudio "Chiqui" Tapia, must stop proceeding in the Economic Criminal jurisdiction of the City of Buenos Aires and must be transferred to Campana Federal Court, because the territorial jurisdiction corresponds to it.
With this decision, Judge Marcelo Aguinsky must forward the case file to his counterpart Adrián González Charvay, who will be in charge of the case. The ruling bore the signature of Alberto Lugones and was based on the fact that the property under investigation is located within the Buenos Aires district of Pilar, whose judicial jurisdiction corresponds to Campana.
Adrián González Charvay reemplazará a Marcelo Aguinsky en la causa
"The focus is on the Partido de Pilar as the axis from which the maneuvers to be investigated are believed to have originated, resulting in the jurisdiction of the Campana Federal Court of First Instance, where the inquiry must be carried out with the necessary effectiveness", Lugones stated in the grounds.
The transfer of the case file took place after a motion filed by González Charvay, who had claimed the case after accepting a formal request from Luciano Pantano. The businessman, owner of the assets together with his mother, Ana Lucía Conte, through the company Real Central SRL, is identified as an alleged front man for Toviggino.
The magistrate had requested on December 30 that the Buenos Aires court decline jurisdiction, invoking the "guarantee of the natural judge" established in Article 18 of the National Constitution and emphasizing that the properties under investigation are located in Pilar. "It is unavoidable to uphold the importance that the investigation of a fact be aired before the natural judge of the territory designated in advance", he argued.
Despite that motion, Prosecutor Sebastián Bringas had considered that the case file should remain in the City of Buenos Aires. In the same vein, Aguinsky refused to step asidefrom the case, maintaining that the alleged predicate offense would be fraudulent administration to the detriment of AFA.
Tapia y Toviggino son dos de los principales apuntados
According to the Buenos Aires judge, the focus of the investigation was not on the location of the property but on the governing body of Argentine soccer. "The core of the investigation is not the house in Villa Rosa, but the Argentine Football Association", he stated, pointing out that the formal owner of the estate and the vehicles was paying expenses with a credit card from a corporate account of the entity, with an address at Viamonte 1366.
It should be clarified that Pantano and Conte had been summoned to be notified and invited to submit a statement in their defense, but the procedure was put on hold until the Chamber solved the jurisdictional issue. With the decision adopted this Tuesday, the investigation will now continue under the jurisdiction of Campana Federal Court.
