The stage of caesura in the trial for the millionaire Ipross scam It started this morning in Roca, with strong tension.
The objections and expressions by the defender of three of the convicted pharmacists provoked warnings from the court and there was even a request for sanction for the lawyer, raised by the representative of the complaint.
This Tuesday’s hearing is the first on three consecutive days planned to define the sentence and the method of execution for the four responsible for defrauding the social work of the Rio Negro State.
On March 22, Justice considered proven the events that occurred between 2013 and 2019, in which the Ipross was harmed 574 timespaying enormous sums of money for medicines and supplies that never reached their members.
The owners of three pharmacies in Roca were convicted for these episodes, Fabio Caffaratti, Rodolfo Mastandrea and Raúl Mascaróin addition to the former auditor of the Río Negro College of Pharmacists, Sandra Fasano.
The caesura stage will end on Thursday, exactly one year after the start of the trial, within the framework of one of the most extensive processes that are remembered in the Rio Negro Justicewith the initial complaint filed at the beginning of 2019.
The first of the 30 witnesses summoned for this phase of the process was the current owner of Ipross, Marcela Ávilawho answered questions from the parties regarding the current procedures for providing medications to members.
These consultations had more than one interruption by the lawyer Patricia Espeche, generating the reaction of the complainant, Federico Rosbaco, who asked that his colleague be sanctioned by judges Oscar Gatti, Laura Pérez and Luciano Garrido.
At that point, the bond between Judge Gatti and the defender was already tense, because the magistrate made a formal call to his attention at the beginning of the hearing, in response to an expression that suggested that the sentence against the pharmacists could already be written.
Espeche initially tried to get the prosecution to present its arguments and detail the request for sentences for the convicted, something that was rejected by the chief prosecutor Teresa Giuffrida and the representative of the State Prosecutor’s Office, who recalled that the caesura does not provide for allegations opening and that article 74 of the Criminal Procedure Code establishes that the trial will begin with the reception of the evidence.
The court rejected the defender’s claim, who later advanced with constant objections, until Judge Gatti warned her that maintaining that position exposed her to having her microphone cut off.
After the statement of the head of Ipross, Guillermo Ceballos, undersecretary of Legal Affairs of the social work, was heard. And thirdly, always via Zoom, declared accountant Hernán Rodríguez.
As in the previous hearings, Cafaratti, Mastandrea and Mascaró were present in the basement of the Judicial City of Roca, while Fasano followed the statements connected virtually.
After three days, the court will set a date for reading the sentence, knowing there how many years in prison the convicted pharmacists will face.
