Former Uruguayan consul in Moscow accused in case of false passports for Russians

Prosecutor Gabriela Fossati charged this Sunday the former Uruguayan consul in Moscow, Stefano Di Conza, in the case that investigates a network of document falsification through which Russian citizens obtain Uruguayan passports.

The official, now in pretrial detention, served in the diplomatic representation of Uruguay in Russia between 2013 and 2018 and was charged with 14 crimes of fraud and assumption of Civil Status.

According to the prosecutor’s investigation, the gang doctored identity records so that Russian citizens could obtain Uruguayan documents.

Thus, based on the falsification of documents such as birth certificates, they processed other documents such as passports in exchange for money.

Fossati requested the preventive detention of the diplomat at least until February 6, while she advances with the investigation.

The prosecutor understands that Di Conza was part of the gang that processed the false passports.

As reported by El Observador, Fossati pointed out at the hearing, based on the testimony of other members of the band, that Di Conza validated the Uruguayan citizenship of Russians by pretending that they had relatives from the South American country, when in reality they did not have that relationship.

Di Conza said at the hearing that he did not speak Russian and that he signed what was delivered by a consulate official. He also maintained that the National Directorate of Civil Identification should review the documentation. The diplomat’s lawyer, meanwhile, affirmed that other defendants pointed to Di Conza to remove responsibility for the maneuver.

THE CUSTODIAN OF LACALLE POU

The case also involves the former custodian of President Luis Lacalle Pou, Alejandro Astesiano, who was dismissed from his role at the end of September when he was arrested and charged with preventive detention for the continued crime of assuming civil status in real reiteration with a crime of association to commit a crime and a crime of influence peddling.

The prosecutor requested that Astesiano go to jail as one of the members of the gang that adulterated documents so that Russian citizens could obtain passports.

According to the investigation, Astesiano held meetings related to his criminal activity in the Executive Tower, the Government House in Uruguay.

Di Conza fulfilled functions in Moscow during the last two administrations of the Frente Amplio, of a different political character from the current government of Lacalle Pou.

HOW WAS THE MANEUVER IN MOSCOW ACCORDING TO THE PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE?

The accused diplomatic official intervened in 77 files and in five of them 11 adulterated registrations were detected, El Observador pointed out based on the prosecutor’s account at the hearing held this Sunday.

Fosatti said that the modus operandi was that once a passport was processed legally, more than one apocryphal process was started at the same time.

For example, in 2016, a woman processed her passport at the consulate in which three children were recognized, while the prosecutor’s office detected that one was real and the other two were false.

The prosecutor also described other cases in which, based on cases with real relationships, others were added that were false. The case of a woman who had two children, from two different fathers, in a period of five months, was also registered, and another of a deceased woman who had three natural Russian children, according to the chronicle of El Observador.

With information from Bloomberg Línea

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