Leonardo Cositorto spoke from prison before his sentence was announced: "They are afraid of me"
Leonardo Cositorto , leader of Generación Zoe , was found guilty of criminal association and fraud in Corrientes, after an extensive judicial process. This Tuesday, the Goya Court will announce the sentence against him while the cases against him for similar crimes in different provinces, such as Córdoba and Buenos Aires, advance. From prison, the ontological coach pointed against the judges and said that he is "afraid" of him and "they want to see him in prison."
The sentence will be announced at 8:30 a.m. during the closing ceremony by judges Ricardo Carbajal , Jorge Carbone and Julio Duarte, who considered Cositorto to be the main person responsible for the case in which he is being tried as the leader of the organization and co-author of repeated frauds.
The judges, who had a strong confrontation with the 54-year-old businessman during the previous hearing, also found Miguel Ángel Echegaray, Maximiliano Javier Batista and Lucas Damián Camelino responsible for being members and co-authors of fraud in the form of a continuing crime. Meanwhile, the brothers Nicolás Ismael and Javier Sebastián Medina were acquitted after a verdict of innocence was issued in their favor.
The crime of continued fraud is a set of scams committed by the same person with the aim of obtaining financial gain. It is considered a single crime, which implies a more serious sanction and for which the CEO of Generación Zoe could receive a sentence of between 5 and 10 years in prison . The penalty for illicit association, on the other hand, has a minimum of 3 or 5 years and a maximum of 10.
The case in the city of Goya is added to other cases in different provinces of the country , the most relevant being that of Villa María, Córdoba , where prosecutor Juliana Companys led the investigation. This is the largest case, with around 30 defendants , including local leaders, and where it is estimated that there were around 300 victims with million-dollar losses.
In Corrientes, 98 depositors reported having lost approximately US$ 170 thousand due to fraudulent operations by Generación Zoe. Although the total number of victims is estimated to be 300 people, with losses close to US$ 400 thousand, the majority chose not to take legal action. Here, the judges understood Batista as the number two of Cositorto and Echegaray as the person who played a key role in the financial administration of the organization.
According to the reconstruction carried out by the Justice, Generación Zoe presented itself as a company dedicated to ontological and financial coaching, which promised extraordinary returns and investments in cryptocurrencies . However, the magistrates point out that behind it there was a Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of people in our country and abroad.
Cositorto spoke before learning his sentence: "They want to see me in prison"The financial coach explained that the preventive detention against him expires on April 4 and if the sentence is not final, he should be released. "They can extend it if they want until the end of May when the case begins in Rosario , but there is not much time left," added the man accused along with other suspects who will be tried in Córdoba, Santa Fe, Salta and Buenos Aires.
In an interview with the Noticias Argentinas agency, the leader of the organization said: " I know that the minimum is five years, but we will see what happens ." In this sense, Cositorto said that "they want to see him in prison" and assured that Justice is "afraid" of him .
" At no time did I commit fraud or carry out any illegal association," he said, insisting on his innocence. One of the points that the accused questions about the resolution is related to the fact that he had travelled to Dubai and in that city he set up the aforementioned association that later operated in the town of Goya: " It is something that Goyete has no idea about, it is absolutely ridiculous," he added.
" They blocked our bank accounts , took 611 bitcoins from us, replaced us with 155 million dollars in cryptocurrencies, took away 37 businesses from us and took more than 30 cars. They are demanding US$200,000 that they didn't even let me pay ," listed the businessman who was arrested in April 2022 in the Dominican Republic, while he was a fugitive and had an Interpol alert hanging over his head .
Judge Carbajal mentioned the events, trips and dates on which the organization settled in the aforementioned city of Corrientes and the recognition scheme of hierarchy to prove the existence of this organization: "It is documented that they settled in the town of Goya and that the illicit association and fraud existed from the beginning ."
Beyond this situation, Cositorto was acquitted by the National Securities Commission (CNV) as well as Generación Zoe and the Universidad del Trading, arguing that there was no violation of the capital market law. This was due to the fact that the coach did not operate with bonds, shares or other negotiable securities , so it was not competent to sanction him.
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