Money laundering: police investigate collection agency linked to Gandini's wife in Montevideo
Police are investigating whether an Abitab agency in the name of the wife of ANP director Jorge Gandini was used in a money laundering scheme.
Operation Trazador reveals links to National Party leader
Last week, as part of Operation Trazador, police seized more than 260 kilos of drugs, weapons, vehicles and cash from a house in Brazo Oriental, Montevideo. Among those detained was Pablo Leiva, until then an adviser to Gonzalo Gómez, a city councillor for the National Party (PN) in Montevideo. Leiva was convicted of money laundering and internal arms trafficking, with a sentence of two years and six months imprisonment.
Gómez, a member of the National Party's Executive Board and elected on list 250, announced the termination of Leiva's position. In a statement, the councillor argued that Leiva's son—who also advised him in the Departmental Assembly—was released following his detention and that "it is not appropriate to attribute responsibilities to him for the facts being investigated regarding his father". List 250 at the national level is led by Jorge Gandini, former National Party senator and current director of the National Ports Administration (ANP).
According to ladiaria.com.uy, confirmed by sources from the Interior Ministry, the investigation is now focused on the possible use of a branch of a collection network as part of the money laundering scheme. This is Abitab agency 71/02, located in a supermarket in Villa Española, which provides collection and currency exchange services.
According to the sworn declaration that Gandini presented in August of last year to the Public Transparency and Ethics Board, that agency is registered in the name of his wife, Laura Scalabrino Muga, a public accountant, as joint property. Scalabrino Muga is said to have acquired the currency exchange business approximately one year ago.
Sources linked to the investigation told ladiaria.com.uy that Leiva, who resided near the location, operated there frequently. The connection between the detainee and the premises emerged from the messages that police accessed following the seizure of mobile phones during the operation.
Sources close to Gandini told the media that the former senator had no personal connection with Leiva and that he would hold a press conference on the matter this Tuesday. According to those same sources, the central argument of the National Party leader will be that Leiva would have laundered money through the payment of contributions to the Social Security Bank from a construction company, without the knowledge of his wife or the staff at the premises.
Source: Google News UY — Montevideo