Since 2010, a hundred people have been denouncing a real estate developer for alleged fraud in the construction of buildings in the downtown area of the City through trusts. The maneuver would have caused a millionaire damage and for the prosecutor Juan Menucci, in charge of the investigation, the authorship is proven. That is why he requested that the case be elevated to oral trial, a measure that was appealed by the defendant’s defense.
According to judicial sources, the conduct indicated as reprehensible “consisted of creating construction trusts at cost with which they collected the money from the contributors -in some cases, canceling the total of the unit-, and then the works were not finished. They never returned what was invested and even asked for more money with the excuse of not having a way to continue the works”.
Well-known names appear among the victims, including professionals, merchants and even former soccer players.
For Menucci, the trustee “defrauded the rights and the trust placed in him by not managing the monetary funds that were contributed to the Trust according to its purpose -for example, the construction of an apartment building on 41st Street between 13th and 14th Streets-, taking them for himself and then giving them an uncertain date, which prevented progress with the work in question without ever being completed, thus depriving the beneficiaries of obtaining the fruit of the investment.”
The suspected businessman was identified by court spokesmen as Bruno Mario Billiani, who hid behind the problems allegedly caused by the UOCRA, then commanded by Juan Pablo “Pata” Medina.
However, for the prosecutor Menucci the alibi has no legal basis.
“Even giving credibility to such circumstances, they do not explain the destination given to the contributed funds -nor what happened in previous years- since the state of the work does not reflect the investment made,” he said.
“This started between 2009 and 2010. In the real estate boom that took place at that time, his construction company, which worked as an outsourced company, became very much in demand,” the complainants explained. And even today the foundations of buildings never completed “are the true reflection of the damage caused,” say the people who went to court in search of compensation.
It should be noted that for this case there are also processes in the civil jurisdiction, where, apart from the aforementioned criminal liability, economic compensation is sought for the damages that would have been caused.
It was learned that a similar situation was being experienced with several enterprises in the city of Saladillo.
INDIGNATION
In dialogue with this newspaper, one of the victims had indicated that “on December 20, 2010, together with other beneficiary trustees, I signed the 41 number 912 trust agreement. From that date I began to make contributions, for about 50 thousand dollars . The builder estimated a construction term of less than 36 months, that is to say that in the worst scenario the building should have been finished by the end of 2013”. None of that happened.
Then, also in 2010, “I signed another contract, from the trust of 13 number 739. For this I came to pay a sum close to 65 thousand dollars,” he added.
However, “he never carried out transparent management or fulfilled his contractual obligation to render accounts,” he concluded indignantly.
