Appeal Filed Against Dismissal
Federal prosecutors Sergio Mola and Diego Velasco filed an appeal on Wednesday against the dismissal of model Sofía Clerici in the case known as Yategate, where she was investigated for alleged money laundering alongside former Lomas de Zamora mayor Martín Insaurralde. The appeal was presented before the new judge in the case, Juan Tomás Rodríguez Ponte, and will be resolved by the Federal Chamber of La Plata. The prosecutors questioned that the previous judge who substituted for the federal court 2 of Lomas de Zamora, Luis Armella, had cleared Clerici one day before the change.[S1]
The decision to dismiss the model based on the result of an accounting expert report was premature and arbitrary, the prosecutors explained, and was made without conducting a sufficient investigation or exhausting useful evidentiary measures, according to the text to which Infobae had access. This decision closed the criminal case for the model whose images on the yacht Bandido, alongside Insaurralde in Marbella, gave rise to the charge of alleged illicit enrichment and money laundering being investigated in Lomas de Zamora.[S1]
Prosecutors Seek Further Investigation
Armella dismissed Clerici based on an accounting expert report that determined there is no evidence connecting the woman's assets with Insaurralde's economic activities or funds, with whom she traveled to Marbella, Spain, in September 2023. The prosecution had opposed this and now demanded that the decision be revoked. The challenged resolution departs from the case records by considering the relationship of the inconsistencies in Clerici's assets with the crime of money laundering and the conduct of Martín Insaurralde as ruled out, the appeal stated.[S1]
The prosecutors emphasized that no tests were ordered to determine whether Clerici obtained her money through income as a model or travel companion, as she argued in her defense. They requested revoking the dismissal and ordering cross-referencing of incoming and outgoing calls of the model and other defendants, as well as measures regarding trips abroad and how she obtained her assets. The dismissal was based on the premise that the link between Clerici and Insaurralde was limited to a personal relationship and the trip to Marbella, presenting it as an occasional or recent bond, they criticized.[S1]
New Evidence and Pending Measures
The appeal also highlights that the dismissal completely omits considering that entry records to the Fincas de San Vicente neighborhood prove that the relationship between the two dates back to before the trip to Marbella in September 2023. Insaurralde has a house in that private neighborhood, where he lived during his marriage to Jésica Cirio. According to an expert report by the Federal Police, images were filmed there showing bundles of thousands of dollars hidden in a dressing room of the former official.[S1]
The case began after the model published photos on social media aboard the yacht El Bandido. Clerici's home in the Los Lagos gated community in Nordelta was raided, where 569,911 dollars in cash and luxury items were seized. Armella ordered sending the records corresponding to her particular financial inconsistencies to the courts of San Isidro, so they could be investigated independently in a new case. This last decision was also appealed by the model's defense.[S1]
Prosecutors Detail Pending Evidence
In their appeal, the prosecutors requested analyzing incoming and outgoing calls, geolocation data, and phone cells of Clerici and other people linked to the investigation. They also focused on the origin of the model's assets, noting that it could not be sufficiently corroborated through her travels and other evidence how she explains owning a home valued at more than 500,000 dollars and a Ford Mustang, among other assets. Another element they seek to deepen is the 600,000 dollars seized in homes linked to Clerici, to determine if there is any relationship with Insaurralde's assets.[S3][S4]
The prosecutors also requested investigating a visit Clerici allegedly made to Insaurralde's house during the period when, according to the hypothesis they seek to confirm, images of the dressing room full of dollars were taken. This point gained relevance after an expert report by the Scopometry Division of the Federal Police determined that the images recorded by Jésica Cirio were taken at the home Insaurralde had in the Fincas de San Vicente private neighborhood, not in Cirio's apartment in Las Cañitas. The new evidence is part of the elements the prosecutors consider necessary to deepen to establish the extent of the link between Clerici and Insaurralde.[S3][S4]
