Eight new suspects were detained following 15 raids carried out at various points in the Greater Buenos Aires area and the City of Buenos Aires by officers of the Buenos Aires Police, in the framework of a case investigating a gang known as the 'VIP vultures', accused of defrauding various insurance companies. Personnel from the Morón Investigations Directorate (DDI Morón) conducted operations in homes in the localities of Vicente López, El Palomar, Haedo, Ramos Mejía, Morón, Virreyes, Caseros, San Miguel, Ituzaingó, and various neighborhoods of the Federal Capital. Police sources informed the Argentine News Agency that the newly apprehended are Gonzalo Joaquín M. (25 years old), María Romina F. (46), Sabrina Eliana L.F. (27), Agustina Daniela R. (27), Sebastián N. (53), Santiago Carlos A. (43), Luis Hernán T. (29), and Cristian Alan T. (37). Investigators will have to establish the role of each of the detainees in this gang, which already had seven other members in custody. During the raids, cell phones, computers, tablets, iPads, notebooks, external hard drives, USB drives, memories, GPS devices, a 16-gauge shotgun, a 40-caliber pistol, chargers, ammunition, documentation, a safe, bill-counting machines, counterfeit bill detectors, professional stamps, medical prescriptions, and other elements of interest to the investigation were seized. It all began after a complaint that representatives of the insurance company Federación Patronal Seguros S.A.U. filed in the first half of this year, after detecting a series of suspicious claims. Morón's Functional Instruction Unit (UFI) No. 5, led by prosecutors Claudio Oviedo and Marisa Monti, located the first members of the organization, including several lawyers, a doctor, and a promoter. They also managed to identify the group's leader, identified as Matías Rodrigo Giovanelli, who was a fugitive for a week. The investigation established that the gang operated with a defined structure: there were professionals in charge of staging traffic accidents with false documentation and recruiting people willing to participate in the fraud in exchange for money. Giovanelli was known on social networks for his account 'Tu Abogado Responde', where he promoted the firm and offered supposed legal advice to victims of accidents with various audiovisual productions typical of an influencer. The scheme used was to recruit people with active policies, simulate accidents, and file claims with different insurance companies using fake medical certificates and notarized powers of attorney. Giovanelli acted with his partner Gastón Tardini, and both promised indemnifications higher than the market average. The case includes more than 11 proven facts between 2022 and 2025, where the structure set up fake medical reports, powers of attorney, and mechanical estimates, claims processed with apocryphal documentation, and payments offered to the so-called accident victims. In addition to Giovanelli, last June, Juan Carlos Cavallo, Susana Alejandra Beatriz Lucas, Ariana Frank, Reynaldo Antonio Falcone, and Micaela Carla Palmisano were charged in the case, with Palmisano still at large. Palmisano was the person who recruited the 'fronts' through social networks and WhatsApp messages under the name of 'Noelia'. The Appeals and Guarantees Chamber in Criminal Matters of Morón granted Giovanelli house arrest with an electronic ankle bracelet after posting a bail of $30,000,000. Tardini, for his part, is at liberty, although he is still under investigation. Buenos Aires, December 11 (NA) -- Eight new suspects were detained after 15 raids were carried out at various points in the Conurbano and the City by officers of the Buenos Aires Police, in the framework of the case that investigates a gang known as the 'VIP vultures', accused of defrauding different insurance companies.
