How it happened two years agothe Complex Crimes prosecutor of the first turn of Córdoba, Enrique Gavier, arrested a group of people involved in presumed real estate scamsamong which there are professionals such as notaries, lawyers, brokers, vendors, engineers and surveyors.
Last week the arrest, among others, of Jorge Gustavo Perchante, government secretary of the Villa Parque Siquiman commune, who is also known in the area as a merchant and real estate operator, had become known.
His partner, the merchant Michelle Díaz Copello, was also arrested, who was benefited from house arrest for being with a girl in charge.
In those days and during the weekend, other arrests were made related to the misappropriation of land in the surroundings of towns in the area, such as Siquiman, Bialet Massé, Estancia Vieja and Tanti, among others.
Although these operations had not been disclosed, Gavier commissioned Chief Commissioner Alberto Bietti and his Provincial Police Complex Cases team to investigate and complete 23 raids in towns in the area, mainly Malagueño, Córdoba and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (Caba ), where an arrest was made.
In total, 18 people are deprived of their liberty, most of them professionals, with a central role in the movement of the organization, and others who functioned as “name lenders” or “proxies”, such as a bricklayer and a commission agent.
Among the professionals, it was learned that there is the notary public María del Rosario del Milagro Muto Olmedo, who has a notarial record in the area and was also placed under house arrest for being over 80 years old.
Another curious fact is that three members with the last name Coutsiers –a father and his two sons– were arrested, all of them professionals with experience in the real estate world. The best known is Carlos Pedro Coutsiers, a civil engineer who was president of the College of Engineers of Córdoba. Also arrested were Martín Esteban Coutsiers, a surveying engineer and former employee of the province’s Cadastre, and real estate broker Juan Ignacio Coutsiers.
Other professionals involved in this group of people deprived of liberty are the lawyers Manuel Rojas (also a notary public) and Raúl Héctor Cano.
Several real estate sellers and commission agents were also detained at Gavier’s disposal: Julio Néstor Perano and Javier Gustavo Perano, Emanuel Vélez Britos, Rodrigo Emanuel Molina, Alejandro Norberto Cerósimo and Juan Ignacio Durand.
Also on the list of people deprived of their liberty is the real estate operator Miguel Ángel Hirles and the seller and “false notary secretary” –according to judicial sources– Darío Ramón Vidal.
In the same condition as detainees are, as “false attorneys”, the bricklayer Víctor José Zárate and the business manager Rodolfo Román Quiroga.
Modalities
Police and judicial sources briefly outlined that according to what has been investigated so far, the organization used various ways to misappropriate the land.
Sometimes, they located ancestral owners who occupied the land with or without titles and “convinced” them through various techniques to vacate them. If they didn’t have titles, the band members would often arrive with fake titles in their content or forged ones. If they had them, they made them believe that the documentation had cracks and that they had a (false) title that surpassed it.
They also made use of powers – also false – of a deceased person, which allowed them to disturb the possession of whoever occupied the land.
Many times, these negotiations were accompanied by harassment that included some “tightening”, according to comments close to the investigation.
Sometimes, the “salespeople” would go to the field with a trusting client in the front of the organization, show it, offer it and end up charging it without being transferred.
The great way to attract customers was throught social media, with profiles of businesses or real estate operators.
It is estimated that there would be about 10 customers who provided their money and consider themselves defrauded. However, Bietti told the media that now that the maneuver is known, it is likely that more victims will appear.
Raids and kidnappings
The delegated investigation was carried out mostly by a non-commissioned officer from Bietti’s team – whose name is being preserved – who obtained important data so that the procedures framed in the “Sierra Segura” operation were launched.
There were six raids in Villa Carlos Paz, two in Bialet Massé, seven in the city of Córdoba, one in Estancia Vieja, one in Tanti, one in Parque Siquiman, two in San Antonio de Arredondo, one in Malagueño and one in Caba.
Some of the elements seized by the commissioners in the raids may be of interest to the investigation, particularly those related to documentation and the content of mobile devices, including cell phones, tablets y notebooks.
In addition to 29,358 dollars, 1,100,000 pesos and 250 euros, the discovery of a rack the computer module with a rig the platform for mining cryptocurrencies.
On the other hand, a 12-gauge repeating shotgun, with 32 cartridges, and a .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol, with 37 cartridges, were seized from a property in Perchante. He transcended from police sources that Perchante would have been a member of a police force and that, despite being retired, at the time he had been authorized to carry them.