Buenos Aires, Feb 3 (NA) – Former federal judge Walter Bento was found guilty of leading a criminal organization that engaged in money laundering and took bribes in Mendoza province. The Oral Federal Court No. 2, composed by judges Gretel Diamante, Eliana Rattá, and Carolina Pereira, determined that Bento was the “main figure of the illicit scheme” and described the acts as a “paradigm of corruption” in the local judiciary. One of his sons, Luciano Bento, was acquitted due to a lack of a formal accusation, while his wife, Marta Boiza, accused of illicit enrichment and money laundering, and his eldest descendant, Nahuel, also accused of money laundering, were found responsible. Additionally, the magistrates dismissed the nullities requested by the defenses and accepted the statutes of limitations for crimes with penalties of up to 2 years. The Prosecutor's Office, made up of María Gloria André and Dante Vega, can next Wednesday or Thursday request a number of years of sentence for Bento and the other guilty parties, as this is a separate trial. Investigators confirmed that since 2007, a criminal organization existed that granted freedom to detainees or accused and reduced coercive measures in exchange for vehicles, bribes in dollars, and real estate, which guaranteed impunity through resolutions that established lack of merit, dismissals, or modifications in the case titles. On November 8, 2023, the Jury for the Trial of Magistrates removed Bento as head of Federal Court No. 1 in Mendoza for “poor performance of his functions,” while the former official remains detained in the Cacheuta prison with preventive detention. The prosecutors requested from TOF No. 2 the guilt of Bento as the author of the crime of criminal association as the leader, in real conjunction with passive bribery (11 facts) as the author, in ideal conjunction with the crime of malfeasance as the author, all in turn in real conjunction with the crime of omission and delay of justice as the author. Likewise, it was requested that he be condemned for disobedience, ideological falsehood, and abuse of authority.
