Buenos Aires, March 5 (NA) -- Businessman Leandro Camani has been formally charged with aggravated extortion in a case investigating a network that allegedly promoted false complaints to pressure various targets. The case also involves Civic Coalition leader Matías Yofe.
The charge was filed by prosecutor Germán Camafreitas in a case being handled alongside Judge Walter Saettone, where Yofe had previously been implicated. Yofe is the president of the CC-ARI in Pilar and a close ally of Elisa Carrió.
Speed cameras, cross-complaints, and drug suspicions: the judicial escalation with Camani at its center.
According to the Argentine News Agency, Camani came under investigation due to his ties with Yofe, including payments for a radio slot on Cadena Premium and his presence at the Martín Fierro awards ceremony, based on testimony from a bodyguard and journalist Claudio Ponce de León.
In the case file, AFA President Claudio "Chiqui" Tapia appeared as a victim and denounced pressure attributed to Camani to install speed cameras on highways and on CEAMSE properties, a maneuver that later led to judicial cases initiated by Yofe and legislator Facundo del Gaiso.
Meanwhile, Yofe came under judicial scrutiny after a case for threats filed in March 2025 was archived, as the court determined that several of the reported events lacked substance.
The original complaint referred to alleged intimidations linked to former councilwoman Claudia Pombo, within the framework of a previous proceeding handled in the federal court of Campana, although that tribunal declared itself incompetent after determining it was not a federal case.
During the investigation, a key witness downplayed the alleged threats, stating they were political opinions, and also affirmed that neither Pombo nor former Buenos Aires Minister Jorge D’Onofrio were present.
Similarly, Andrea García, identified as a supposed victim in another part of the case, denied having filed any complaints and labeled the attribution of a filing to her name as "false," which led the court to archive the case for lack of evidence.
Following that resolution, Yofe was accused of perjury and will be summoned for questioning to explain his statements under threat of prosecution, while he also appears in the aggravated extortion case in Pilar alongside businessman Camani.
The judicial context also includes the recent ruling by the San Martín Federal Chamber that confirmed the prosecution of former Buenos Aires Minister of Transportation Jorge D’Onofrio for corruption and money laundering linked to the speed camera and VTV system, with a 350 million peso embargo on his assets.
In that investigation, the prosecution of former VTV Inspection and Control Director Facundo Asensio also became final, with a 300 million peso embargo, in a case analyzing the alleged diversion of traffic fine funds through a structured network with defined roles and hierarchies.
In parallel, the La Plata Federal Prosecutor's Office is evaluating a request from the business chamber CECAITRA to investigate Camani's links to a supposed Rosario drug trafficker arrested in 2024 while driving a Mercedes-Benz GLE registered in the businessman's name.
The agency clarified that this episode does not imply direct criminal liability for Camani, but it requested an investigation into his circle for alleged practices of using criminal and media complaints as a pressure mechanism to obtain economic or commercial advantages.
