De Casas testified this Wednesday as a witness in the mega-trial for bribery in Mendoza. And he talked about He noticed situations that caught his attention in the file. Specifically, he explained that although they presented several requests for freedom for Carlos Barón Knoll, they were always rejected. At the same time “There were other people who were doing much better with much less.”
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Christian Lozano
“In that case, Dr. Luciano Ortego (NdA: accused as Walter Bento’s right-hand man) appears defending a person and it was a very poor defense, in my way of seeing things. But they gave his client a solution,” he said. in reference to a ruling by then judge Walter Bento.
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“It was said that if they put in money they could regain their freedom. In the Federal Justice, at that time, it was something that circulated in cafes or in prisons. It could be arranged this way or that. It was with Walter Bento’s court. It was a comment that circulated, that clients listened to and then consulted. But I told them that I didn’t work that way,” added the lawyer.
Bribes in Mendoza and its link with Walter Bento
In mid-2020, the alleged businessman Diego Aliaga He was missing and later found murdered. Beyond the shock of his crime, a rumor began to arise that the man thad contacts to get prisoners out of smuggling and drug trafficking in the Federal Justice. At the end of that year, a suspect of financing a drug gang – Walter Bardinella Donoso – was arrested and conversations were found on his cell phone that fueled that hypothesis.
The federal prosecutor Dante Vega he was following the trail until he decided ororder raids, arrests and charges that took place on May 5, 2021. Among the suspects were federal judge Walter Bento – currently dismissed and detained -, his wife Marta Boiza and a handful of lawyers. The investigation did not end there, as there were other advances and accusations as the months passed.
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In general terms, the research maintains that Bento led an illicit organization He dedicated himself to managing bribes to give benefits to prisoners, such as house arrest or freedom. Aliaga would have been the right hand of the magistrate and his job was to contact people who fell prisoner for reasons of smuggling or drug trafficking.
The man offered them the benefits in exchange for juicy bribes that were paid in dollars and even in real estate. Then they began to be represented by one of the accused lawyers who presented briefs for the magistrate to rule on their release from jail.
Prosecutor Vega has a hundred witnesses to support his accusation, in addition to messages and calls – generally through the Telegram application – where the suspects made reference to bribes and Judge Bento with some euphemisms. In the other side, The defense lawyers maintain that it is a case that was armed against the magistrate for political reasons.
On the other hand, the prosecution considered that Walter Bento and his family clan became rich and laundered the money that came from bribes. Proof of this, according to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, are the hundreds of trips that the couple took in recent years, the properties and vehicles they acquired and the goodwill in which they invested.
