Uruguay
Gandini denied ties to the convicted adviser and said that at his wife’s shop he only paid bills
The National Party leader said neither he nor his family had been summoned by the courts and stated that the man convicted of money laundering was merely a customer from the area. He also made himself available to the Prosecutor’s Office and the Jutep.
Jorge Gandini held a press conference to respond to public references to a collection office in his wife’s name, following the money laundering conviction of an adviser to National Party councilman Gonzalo Gómez in Montevideo, in an operation in which weapons, drugs and more than $ 3,000,000 were seized, according to El País Uruguay.
According to that outlet, Gandini said his partner’s name was exposed because of her family tie to him and stressed that neither he nor his wife received police or prosecutorial summonses. He also said they learned of the case at the same time as everyone else and that, from there, they began to review the situation.
In that context, he explained that the business owned by his wife for the past 13 months operates mainly as a payments and collections office, in addition to serving as a currency exchange house. He said the convicted person was a neighbor and regular customer in the area, but denied that he carried out dollar-exchange operations there or laundered money.
Still according to El País Uruguay, Gandini said the convicted man went to the shop only to pay bills and that, approximately every two months, he paid two BPS invoices corresponding to “two small construction companies.” He also said those transactions are documented.
The leader added that both the shop and his personal situation are subject to oversight, since these activities are monitored by the Financial Information and Analysis Unit of the Central Bank of Uruguay, while he, due to his status as a Politically Exposed Person, is monitored by Senaclaft.
Gandini said he can back up what he stated with documentation, said he will make himself available to the Prosecutor’s Office and also to the Public Transparency and Ethics Board. He also said that neither he nor his wife know the convicted man, although the shop manager and other employees could identify him.
Regarding Gonzalo Gómez, he said he is in China and will return in the coming days to appear before the National Party Board and before the press. He also mentioned that Lucio Leiva, Gómez’s adviser in the Montevideo Departmental Board and the convicted man’s son, was drawn into the situation.
Before the conference, Interior Minister Carlos Negro was asked about the case and said, according to El País Uruguay, that the influence of drug-trafficking money and money laundering on Uruguay’s political and economic structures is concerning. In relation to the investigation linked to the seizure of more than 265 kilos of cocaine in Brazo Oriental, he said this type of asset-based investigation is complex, takes time and requires waiting for its results.
Sources
Sobre esta nota. Written by El Notero with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited outlet. El Notero did not conduct its own reporting on this event.
