Uruguayan who tried to buy luxury cars from union member Marcelo Balcedo has died

Last Thursday, the man who tried to buy three luxury cars that belonged to Marcelo Balcedo (58), former head of the Union of Workers and Employees of Minorities and Education (SOEME), now detained in Uruguay, is on trial for money laundering.

Uruguayan portal El Eco reported that he died in a private center in the city of Carmelo. He had serious health problems, he was admitted on Wednesday 15 when he was transferred from his home by a police unit ”, indicates the portal.

In the press of the neighboring country, they identify it as “JJB” (by his initials) because his identity remains under reserve after the scandal which occurred during the auction of the cars of Balcedo and the judicial investigation which followed.

This is because JJB offered $ 304,000 to keep three of the four luxury vehicles they seized from the union, but he did so without even having money to pay the down payment which amounted to 102. $ 000.

The controversial auction

The auction took place on March 25 at the facilities of the Radisson Victoria Plaza hotel. There, the National Drug Board (JND) offered four premium vehicles owned by Balcedo.

And JJB participated in the operation through an intermediary who was in the room, whom they identified as PH. So he made an offer for a Chevrolet Camaro 2SS, a Porsche Panamera and an Range Rover 5.0 HSE Supercharged, and prevailed as the highest bidder.

However, at the time of the completion of the operation, PH clarified that he did not have the money to leave the brand, that he was a mechanic but that he represented a businessman from Nueva Palmira. which had sufficient land and resources to meet the costs.

“This man from Nueva Palmira told me that when he won the bid at the auction, he must have called his daughter and told her that she was going to sign the purchase of the cars,” PH asked investigators from the Organized Crime Directorate and Interpol. .

Did the president of the National Association of Auctioneers and Real Estate Brokers (Anrci), Mario Molina, take legal action against JJB and PH.

And the situation got even more scandalous, when JJB’s daughter said that her father “he is a drinker, has psychiatric problems and does not have the money to buy these cars ”, as the Uruguayan press indicates.

Finally, the Auctioneers Association and the JND sued JJB and PH for “fraud” demanding 175 thousand dollars for the damage suffered.

The Balcedo affair

Balcedo is accused by the Argentinian courts of being the “head” of an “illicit association” accused of embezzle 500 million pesos belonging to the Soeme union between 2012 and 2018.

For this reason, ten friends and relatives of the trade unionist are sent for oral proceedings, with the exception of Balcedo, for whom his extradition from Uruguay is still awaited.

In the neighboring country, what had been the “biggest seizure of money in history” – based on Argentina’s investigation – has been deflated over time.

First, Uruguayan justice has benefited Balcedo and his wife Paola Fiege -also detained- with house arrest in one of his homes.

Later, Balcedo’s demand for 11 years in prison was reduced to four years and 8 months in a deal in which the union member and his wife pleaded guilty to avoid an oral trial. Fiege was sentenced to three years in prison. The two avoided going back to prison.

In exchange, they had to hand over to the Uruguayan state $ 8 million, a mansion in Maldonado and the four high-end cars from the upset auction: the Porsche Panamera, the Porsche Boxster S, the Chevrolet Camaro and a 4×4 Land Rover Range Rover Sport.

Finally, Justice ended up returning to the couple a large part of the luxury vehicles from a fleet of 14 that had been seized, among them, a Ferrari California, a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, a Dodge Ram 2500 SLT truck, a pickup -up Ford. Raptor, four jet skis, among others. They also gave them a mansion and paid them back $ 2.5 million.

In October 2020, federal judge Ernesto Kreplak, who is investigating Balcedo and its surroundings in our country, asked the Uruguayan justice to keep the $ 2.5 million that had been confiscated in the investigation.

The judge requested Balcedo’s extradition on different occasions to testify to Soeme’s embezzlement and money laundering.

They allocated 61 assets between cars, boats and high-end properties. Balcedo was never extradited and could not be investigated by video conference.

GK