At the beginning of November 2017, the Federal Police surprised with a series of raids ordered by the Justice regarding the investigation of complaints about scams with the sale of lots in the city. The suspicions pointed to locals, including a lawyer, accused of being part of a gang precisely organized to perpetrate the scams. Years passed, and the investigation in silence continued to advance until these days. In fact, from the Federal Court of Azul, those involved were summoned to an investigation.
But not everything stopped there. Rather, before the aforementioned case, there was another file being processed in the Federal Capital, where a prosecutor’s office also concluded a criminal investigation in which the same lawyer is accused of a crime of a similar nature. More precisely, he is accused of forging documentation with the signature of a dead man to keep land in Tandil, more precisely in the area of Lunghi avenue, between Dante Alighieri and Almafuerte.
Said file has already been brought to trial for the crime of “false use of a document intended to prove the identity of persons, repeated on five (5) occasions that actually concur with each other, in ideal competition with the crimes of ideological falsehood and scam, repeated in four (4) opportunities that concur in a real way with each other, as co-author ”. The accused, the Tandilenses lawyer Sebastián Eduardo Romay.
The accusation
According to this newspaper, the federal prosecutor’s office in Buenos Aires charged that on April 25, 2013, Romay and a person who could not be identified, usurped the identity of Agustín Materazzi – who died on December 18, 1997 – by using of a false DNI and in this way, they fraudulently granted a special irrevocable power of attorney from Materazzi (the deceased) in favor of neighbors who acquired said land, operations that were reflected in public deeds before the public notary Marcos Mayo, who at the Finally, in the criminal investigation he would testify and compromise the lawyer from Tandil.
It was the translational deed of domain of ten fractions of land located in the city in the aforementioned block.
In the accusation, the accuser describes the fraudulent maneuvers that allowed the aforementioned scam.
The discharge
On March 27, 2018, Romay gave a statement in the case and in his defense stated that “in 2012 a person who called himself Pedro Eliseo Díaz appeared in my study in Tandil, who said he lived in the Federal Capital. The named contacted me through an acquaintance that I could not determine who he was, I worked for many years in the Federal Capital and it may be someone I worked with. The reason for Diaz’s consultation was that he had acquired in the city of
Tandil the number of 10 lots and he wanted me to manage the real estate debt process that each lot had, I told him to give me some time, he said that in two or three weeks he would return to Tandil. When he returned I had him the report on the status of the properties, it was a fairly large debt between 30,000 or 40,000 pesos per lot, which given the value of the lots was a significant debt. ”
“This person – he continued relating – expressed the intention to sell them. He had bought them by ticket, he had not perfected the domain, but he indicated that he was related to the owner of the lots, I told him that I might be interested in buying two lots, I lived with my wife in an apartment and my first child had been born and the matter of Procrear credits was just beginning and one of the requirements was to have a lot of our own. I asked him how much he was asking for the lots and he told me that 300,000 pesos per lot, at that time it was a reasonable price for the area. After negotiating, we reached the sum of 200,000 pesos and we agreed that I would take care of the taxes and the payment of the deed. He told me that the procedure in the notary’s office had to be in the Federal Capital because the owner of the lots was an elderly person who lived in the capital and I agreed with the condition of putting the notary’s office, as a result of that I contacted the notary’s office of Marcos Mayo, with whom the seven years that I practiced at Capital I had a relationship (…) ”.
Romay reported that “I conveyed the whole matter to the notary public and asked for his opinion on what to do, as he had done previously in various situations in which I sent him clients. The clerk recommended that I make the special irrevocable power of attorney, and I asked him to remit the costs of the power of attorney and the deed of the lot, he gave me a price, I agreed, Pedro Eliseo Díaz took office in Buenos Aires with Mayo and Later they told me when it was ready, I later closed the operation with Díaz with a previous ticket, then the clerk prepared the deed of lot 12, because he had no money to pay taxes and the deed of the other lot. He drew up the deed, summoned Díaz to sign, he signed and when everything was signed two or three days later, I traveled to sign for lot 12. A year later I wrote lot 13 in the name of Vulcano who is my father-in-law, because I couldn’t have two lots in my name due to the Procrear credit ”.
He went on to say that “Pedro Eliseo Díaz asked me for a real estate agency to sell the other lots and I referred him to Juan Pagliaro’s real estate agency, then I don’t know what he did.”
“Three years after all this,” he recalled, “when I had already started building, the clerk contacted me, he informed me that they called him from a clerk’s office in Mar del
Plata, that the writing was badly done because there was a person substitution, I asked him how it could be that he had not controlled that situation that I had hired him, trusting that he would check the whole situation since I paid him for that service and we had an exchange of words ”.
“After that we did not speak any more and five months after the notary’s call, Dr. Peirano called me, who is a lawyer who works in Mar del Plata but takes cases from Tandil and quotes me in Dr. Bertucci’s study, there she tells me that she was the lawyer of a Materazzi heir, I told her that I was unaware of the situation and I told her what I am relating, “he added.
The accused lawyer expanded on the situation stating that “she –the lawyer- told me that she did not care and that I had to financially settle with Materazzi the matter of all the lots and I replied that in no way and I withdrew from the meeting She indicated that she would give me 48 hours to give her a solution and I replied again that I could give her a solution regarding the lots that I had acquired. Two days later she calls me again and asks me if I have any solution and I ask her again my position, I explain that if there is an error from the clerk, the clerk would have to have insurance to cover this situation, she continued to insist with the entirety of the lots, I reiterated that I am a third purchaser in good faith for consideration and I told him that we could reach an agreement for the two lots I bought if he could prove this situation to me and the fact that his client is heir to Materazzi, that he could not prove me indicating that the documentation was lost, after which he replied that he was going to file the criminal complaint and I told him to tell him that I had nothing to hide and only now I am aware of this complaint.
At the same time, he expanded by noting that “then another of the buyers had a problem and the auctioneer took him to my studio so that I could tell them that the same thing was happening to me and I recommended that they maintain the same position regarding their properties, but it was with the only buyers that I had contact ”.
He clarified that he “never had contact with the other buyers nor did I participate in the other operations. I would like the other buyers to be summoned to state whether or not they had contact with me in these operations, since ultimately they did the same operation that I did with respect to the two lots that I bought and I did not participate in the other operations. I feel cheated just like the other people who bought these lots were cheated ”.
Also cited for investigation in Azul for new complaints
It should be noted that in November 2017, the same lawyer and other residents of Tandil were investigated for similar complaints and in these circumstances raids were carried out.
The case began in the local federal prosecutor’s office from the complaint made by a victim in relation to a real estate transaction that would not have materialized due to the suspicion of a false deed, but which started an investigation.
As it transpired in those days, it would be a group of people who would dedicate themselves to the falsification of deeds and public instruments related to properties in Tandil in particular, and who would operate with a notary’s office with a seat in Azul to complete the procedure.
Specifically, the deployment of the federal force was carried out in a law firm located in Pinto 1089, where the lawyer Romay’s offices operate, in a 180 Montevideo printing house, in two homes, in Roca 1529 and in Cabral at 2200, and in a notary at Roca 428 in the city of Azul. During these inspections, documentation was seized which, according to the sources consulted, would allow to corroborate one of the hypotheses raised during the investigation. However, the elements collected will be analyzed to determine the extent of the actions that the band would carry out.
The modus operandi put in place would point to the falsification of the necessary instruments to grant the title transfer deeds, as they appear from the version of the victim that must be verified to establish the next steps.
The following year, the investigation continued its course for the alleged crime of falsification of public instruments (Article 292 of the National Penal Code) and fraud, for which three defendants were left, the lawyer Sebastián Romay, Juan José Stip and Nicolás Cabana.
For this reason, Romay was summoned to the inquiry on March 25 at 10 a.m., an hour later Juan José Stip will do the same and the next day, at the same time, María Dolores Palacio will have to give a statement. Said hearings will be held remotely.
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