The investigative hearings of Luciano Pantano and his mother, Ana Conte, identified as alleged front men in the case of the so-called "Pilar mansion", were suspended this Monday after a motion filed by their defense. The motion requested that the case file be sent to the federal court of Campana, which led to the temporary interruption of the progress of the judicial process.
The decision was made by the economic criminal court judge Marcelo Aguinsky, who decided to halt the hearings scheduled for 11 and 12 o'clock, while waiting for a ruling on the jurisdictional issue raised by the defendants' lawyers.
The request for inhibition and the role of the federal courts
The request for inhibition was filed before the federal judge of Campana, Adrián González Charvay. Now it will be this magistrate who must decide whether he accepts the request and formally claims the case, which would mean that the case file would no longer be processed in the Buenos Aires courts and would move to the federal jurisdiction of Campana.
As long as that decision is not made, Aguinsky considered it prudent to suspend the investigative hearings, whose main objective was for the defendants to explain the origin of the funds used to acquire and maintain a luxurious property located in Villa Rosa, in the district of Pilar.
The assets under judicial scrutiny
According to the investigation, Pantano and Conte had to justify not only the purchase of the mansion, but also the maintenance of an estate that includes 54 high-end vehicles, all of them seized during the raids carried out on the property. For the investigators, the volume of assets and the level of associated expenses are difficult to reconcile with the income declared by the defendants.
