Claudio Uberti, a former Kirchnerist official, was detained on Wednesday to serve a four-year and six-month prison sentence for currency smuggling in the Guido Antonini Wilson suitcase case. The Supreme Court rejected his defense's final appeal, making the conviction final. Uberti was transferred to Ezeiza federal prison.
Claudio Uberti, former head of OCCOVI, was detained on Wednesday and transferred to Ezeiza federal prison to serve an effective sentence of four years and six months. The conviction became final after the Supreme Court's ruling, which rejected Uberti's defense appeal on formal grounds. Justices Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz, and Ricardo Lorenzetti signed the decision.
The case dates back to the early morning of August 4, 2007, when a private flight from Royal Class, contracted by ENARSA and originating from Maiquetía, Venezuela, arrived at the South Terminal of Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires. On board were Uberti, his private secretary Victoria Carolina Bereziuk, Exequiel Omar Espinosa, then president of ENARSA, and Venezuelan citizens linked to PDVSA: Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson, Daniel David Uzcátegui Spetch, Ruth Behrends Ramírez, Nelly Cardozo Sánchez, and Wilfredo Ávila Drie.
DGA and Airport Security Police personnel checked the hand luggage. PSA officer María del Luján Telpuk detected rectangular packages in Antonini Wilson's briefcase via the scanner. Antonini Wilson claimed they were books and 'little papers,' but it was confirmed to contain 790,550 dollars. The DGA took over the procedure without notifying the Judiciary. Days later, Antonini Wilson left the country and traveled to Miami.
Uberti, who is one of the 'repentant' witnesses in the notebooks of bribes case, faces charges for smuggling the import of currencies, aggravated by the involvement of two or more persons and by being a public official, in the degree of attempt. The detention was carried out by order of Judge Sabrina Namer, substitute for the No. 1 Oral Tribunal in Economic Criminal Matters.
