The federal court of Retiro (Buenos Aires) denounced this Monday the national deputy Cristian Ritondo and his wife, the lawyer Romina Aldana Diago. Ritondo is currently head of the block of deputies of Propuesta Republicana (PRO), the party led by former Argentine president Mauricio Macri, and has been a key support for the approval of the laws promoted by Javier Milei. The Ritondo-Diago couple was denounced for the alleged crimes of illicit enrichment, cover-up, bribery and influence peddling. Also for alleged crimes against the economic and financial order and breach of duties as a public official, in the case of Ritondo.
The complaint took place after a journalistic investigation revealed the marriage’s links to companies in tax havens and Florida. This research, published this Sunday by the Investigation Unit (UDI) of elDiarioAR and the Latin American Center for Journalistic Research (CLIP)also revealed the acquisition of properties in Miami and South Florida.
The presentation of the complaint – to which elDiarioAR had access – was carried out in Comodoro Py 2002 (federal justice headquarters) by lawyer Jeremías Rodríguez and was in charge of federal judge Sebastián Ramos. According to the draw reported by the Judicial Information Center (CIJ), the prosecutor of the case will be Eduardo Taiano.
The complaint details the findings of the journalistic investigation along with a legal analysis of the hypothetical conduct of Ritondo and Diago. “For the Argentine regulatory regime, both defendants are partners because they are married, regardless of other commercial companies that they are part of,” said Rodríguez.
The complainant stated that the marital partnership “is governed by the rules of the partnership contract” and that the “assets that each of the spouses, or both, acquired during the marriage, by any title other than inheritance, donation or legacy. .. or by purchase or other onerous title, even if it is in the name of only one of the spouses, are considered community assets that make up the marital partnership.” This, the lawyer maintained, “demonstrates that the commission of the crimes is committed by both spouses without distinction, regardless of the fact that only one of them appears in the purchase of the real estate and the constitution of the offshore companies.”
Furthermore, Rodríguez stated that “the National Representative Ritondo could not be unaware of the regulatory regime of the conjugal society that he integrates with his wife Romina Diago and, therefore, it is more than clear that information was intentionally hidden in the mandatory sworn declaration that required by law 25,188″ of the Law of Ethics in the Exercise of Public Function, in the event that these assets in the United States are not declared by Ritondo in the file reserved for the assets of his couple.
The complainant asked the judge to summon both Ritondo and Diago to testify to determine the origin of the funds that were used to acquire assets in Florida.
The case
Lawyer Romina Diago appears in the public and confidential documents of a network of companies in the British Virgin Islands, Delaware and Florida linked to the acquisition of apartments for approximately 2.6 million US dollars (more than 2.4 million euros) in Miami and Hallandale, in South Florida. Although the representatives of the couple separated both defendants from part of the scheme, they did not respond to whether the companies were duly declared before the Customs Collection and Control Agency (ARCA) of Argentina.
Romina Aldana Diago, Ritondo’s wife, was manager and member of the company Goformore LLC, a company founded on June 4, 2012 in Florida and whose translation would be equivalent to “Vamospormás.” According to the investigationon March 14, 2013, Goformore LLC acquired an apartment at 10275 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach – one of the main avenues in Miami – for a value of $580,000 (552,580 euros). According to sources, Diago bought this apartment from another company, called Harbor House 1533 Corp, chaired by another man from the space led by Mauricio Macri: Juan Alberto Pazo, the brand new head of the Customs Collection and Control Agency (ARCA), the former Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP), and the same entity in which it is unknown if the assets of Diago and Ritondo were declared.
Not in vain, when Ritondo was appointed as president of the PRO, the deputy celebrated his position with a message on the social network X that closed with the phrase: “Let’s go for more!”
Until the previous week, Pazo was the second in command of the Ministry of Economy led by Luis “Toto” Caputo and the virtual Secretary of Industry of the government of Javier Milei. However, on December 4Caputo announced on the social network. Three days later, in an unexpected turn, the Executive fired the head of ARCA, Florencia Misrahi and appointed Pazo in charge of the tax control and collection body.
Diago, who practices as a lawyer and advisor to PRO members in organizations in the City of Buenos Aires, remained in the public documents of the Goformore company until June 2013, according to Florida public records. From then on, the lawyer never again appeared in the company’s open papers, which can be consulted through its website.
Following her departure from Goformore LLC, Diago was replaced by a real estate agent who acted solely as a manager of the company, and not as a manager/member. Since then, the new manager is MaríaJosé Pérez-Millán.
The apartment that Goformore acquired from the Pazo company (Harbour House 1533 Corp) –of which the lawyer also appears as a shareholder in 2018 It was sold a year and a half later, in September 2014, for $650,000 (619,413.37 euros), according to the official Miami Dade registry. By that date, Diago had just established the Warwick Trust to manage assets abroad and had also activated a company in the British Virgin Islands (Sunstar Point) to safeguard a property in Florida valued at the same value.
Other goods
Goformore LLC has three other properties in Miami, acquired between January 2013 and July 2015, and valued at 467,843 dollars (445,866.08 euros), 656,900 (626,000.61) and 446,900 (446,900), according to the official registry of Miami Dade. Together, the three properties exceed one and a half million dollars. If the apartment that they acquired from Pazo in 2013 and then sold is added, the assets of the company amount to 2.6 million dollars.
Now that Goformore is headed by María J. Pérez-Millan, this manager who assumed the position in 2013, is also the representative of another company: Ilustre LLC, located in Delaware and founded in February 2015. Ilustre LLC is owned by a third party. company: Bonita Holdings 39, of Florida, integrated by Diago, as revealed by the investigation.
In addition, Ritondo’s wife is also listed as the beneficial owner of Sunstar Point, a company in the British Virgin Islands, and manages a trust in Florida to control his assets abroad, called the Warwick Trust.
This research was carried out thanks to the support of the Consortium to Support Independent Journalism in the Latin American Region (CAPIR), a project led by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR).
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