The Kirchnerist Jorge D’Onofrio was indicted and had 350,000,000 pesos ($350,000,000) frozen.

Federal Judge of Campana, Adrián González Charvay, ordered the prosecution of Kirchnerist Jorge Alberto D’Onofrio, former Minister of Transportation under Axel Kicillof, involved in corruption schemes related to traffic fines and VTV, for the alleged crime of money laundering of illegal origin.

Meanwhile, the magistrate imposed an asset freeze of $350,000,000, although he will remain free while the investigation progresses. The ruling also affected Facundo Asensio, former Director of Oversight and Control of the Provincial Directorate of Technical Vehicle Verification, who received an asset freeze of $300,000,000.

In D’Onofrio's case, the prosecution was aggravated because at the time of the events he was serving as a public official. In contrast, this aggravating factor was not applied to Asensio since no direct connection between his duties and the investigated schemes was proven. Meanwhile, the general asset inhibition for both defendants remains in effect, a measure that had been issued on March 20, 2025.

The case began on September 5, 2024, following a complaint stating that D’Onofrio led, together with Pilar councilwoman Claudia Pombo, "a criminal structure composed of different levels, with division of functions and a clear establishment of hierarchies, conceived with the purpose of diverting funds from the coffers of the provincial government and the respective municipalities, funds derived from the traffic fine collection system installed throughout the Buenos Aires territory, amassing astronomical sums of money later invested in the acquisition of movable and immovable property under a false appearance of legality, using, in some cases, front men or intermediaries."

The complaint mentioned the purchase of an Audi Q8 SUV, registered in Asensio's name on October 19, 2023, with a declared value of $30,000,000, although the vehicle's insurance policy reached $173,800,000 on that date.

Case details

According to the investigation, the use, control, and effective disposition of the vehicle actually belonged to D’Onofrio, who appeared as authorized to drive it from the moment of purchase and was also the one who paid for the Telepase service associated with the vehicle.

The file details that the transaction included the signing of a contract between Asensio and the company Los Altos de Don Carlos Emprendimiento Inmobiliario S.A. for an amount of $30,000,000. The company, whose shareholders are Asensio's parents, doesn't show any proven economic activity or an operational address.

According to the court ruling, the difference between the insured value and the declared price, together with the use of a loan contract without verifiable economic backing, constitute elements that point to an attempt to conceal the true ownership of the vehicle and the origin of the funds used to acquire it.

Subsequently, the vehicle was sold to a third party, Sebastián Eduardo Berterretche, on November 12, 2024, coinciding with the day when the Federal Court of Appeals of San Martín confirmed the court's jurisdiction to continue intervening in the case.

In his statement, the former minister denied having owned the SUV and claimed that he only drove it on one occasion. "Once, when they came to my house for dinner and I went out to test drive it, nothing more," he said.

He later acknowledged that Asensio had given him the blue card for the vehicle. "Those were turbulent times when there was a political campaign, when I was taking over a ministry that was starting from scratch, and they simply wanted to offer me the gesture of letting me use one of the vehicles if I needed it, but it really was not necessary either," he stated.

Regarding the payment for the Telepase, he clarified: "Since the Autopistas del Sol station where the TAG was delivered was much closer to me than to him, I went to pick it up, I paid for it with my debit card, but it has to do with the familiarity I have with Facundo."

Asensio, meanwhile, claimed that he bought the SUV with money obtained from the sale of a plot of land belonging to the family company and admitted to having given D’Onofrio a blue card so he could drive the vehicle.

The magistrate considered that the explanations provided by both defendants are contradictory and do not match the evidence collected. In his ruling, he concluded that Asensio acted as a front man, concealing the true ownership of the vehicle and "setting up a typical asset concealment scheme characteristic of money laundering operations."