March 10, 2023 – 02:25
Enrique Blaksley Señorans, nicknamed “Argentine Madoff,” brought Roger Federer to the country, arranged matches with Messi and built a career with Usain Bolt.
The Federal Oral Court (TOF) 4 yesterday sentenced Enrique Blaksley Señorans to eight years in prison, nicknamed the “Argentine Madoff”, considered the head of an illegal association that through a pyramid scheme defrauded 318 savers who were tempted to invest in dollars to earn high interest that the leader of “Hope Funds” promised.
It was a trial of more than two years and Blaksley was detained from April 2018 until last December, when he just managed to leave Ezeiza, where he was in pretrial detention, after paying a large sum of money as bail set by the Justice. He was arrested by decision of federal judge María Servini after receiving countless complaints from savers.
At the trial stage there are 318 cases, although it is estimated that there are a thousand because most of them went through another judicial route -civil or commercial- and many others even appeared in Court to recover what they had lost.
The businessman was in charge of the Hope Funds firm that received money in foreign currency, mostly from savers. The promise was to return the savings with a profit for the return on the funds he supposedly invested, but most of the victims never recovered what was invested.
Blaksley had a high media profile and was the one who arranged Roger Federer’s arrival in the country to play a match with Juan Manuel del Potro; He organized benefit matches with Lionel Messi and even put together a race starring sprinter Usain Bolt on July 9.
At the trial, federal prosecutor Abel Córdoba had asked the Court for a 12-year prison sentence for Blaksley for being considered the head of an illegal association, for money laundering and for various infractions for not having been authorized for the activity he carried out. with the collection of savings. The AFIP, which is a plaintiff in the case, had requested an 18-year prison sentence for the businessman.
