Federal judge Marcelo Martínez De Giorgi rejected for the second time the attempt by José Luis Espert and his defense to group the judicial cases in which he is accused in Comodoro Py. Strictly speaking, the search for the former national deputy and former libertarian candidate indicates that the money laundering case that he has open in San Isidro based on a transfer of 200 thousand dollars made to him by the businessman accused of drug trafficking Federico “Fred” Machado is added to a previous file opened in the Retiro courts. The definition is in the hands of the Federal Chamber.
Espert spends his days withdrawn, away from the cameras and lights of the TV sets from which he got so much juice for years. It has remained this way for several weeks before December 10, 2025, when his term as deputy ended, based on the indictment signed by the federal prosecutor of San Isidro Fernando Domínguez and which marked the starting point of an investigation that put the focus of the Judiciary on his assets and collapsed his electoral aspirations.
Since then, all the developments that bear his name have to do with the advancement of Justice. And, in part, with his attempt to get Comodoro Py to concentrate this money laundering investigation along with another open since 2021 that investigates the in-kind contributions he received from Machado during the 2019 presidential campaign.
He put the strategy into practice together with his former defense lawyer, Alejandro Freeland, last December, after a first failed attempt in October.
This second attempt began when he presented a request for Martínez de Giorgi, in charge of the 2021 case, to receive him in an in-person hearing to clarify the facts. In Justice they quickly made it clear that the only possibility for this to happen was a call for an investigation.
As that call is still pending, Espert’s defense made a new request for Comodoro Py to certify the San Isidro case and ask the judge who has it, Lino Mirabelli, to recuse himself. The objective was to verify the current status of that file opened in recent months and to request the transfer of the case to the courts based in Retiro. But in recent days he received a setback that momentarily put that intention in check.
In a brief resolution to which Tiempo had access, Martínez de Giorgi rejected the inhibitory proposal.
He did so by maintaining that “the request formulated (…) appears premature” since the circumstances contemplated by the Criminal Procedure Code to move forward in that sense are not met. Furthermore, the judge pointed out that in both investigations “there are ongoing evidentiary measures of very different tenor, so that the accumulation that is requested could hinder their development and the consequent progress of each process.”
For the magistrate, proceeding with the defense’s request could be counterproductive and hinder the progress of both cases.
As on the first occasion, prosecutor Alejandra Mángano, who intervenes in Comodoro Py’s case, opposed it.
Now, the definition is in the hands of Chamber I of the Federal Chamber, which will intervene with the sole conformation of Judge Mariano Llorens. Before deciding, the magistrate will hear the proposals in a hearing scheduled for April 28.
Bad news
Until now, Espert has only received bad news every time he tried to intervene in the investigative processes.
In March, Judge Mirabelli extended the general inhibition of assets that had been decreed at the beginning of the investigation. And that decision dropped the appeal that he had presented before the Federal Chamber of San Isidro, this media learned.
Meanwhile, in recent weeks, Espert changed lawyers and appointed criminal lawyer Julio Pueyrredón, who avoided commenting when asked by Tiempo.
Espert, former candidate for national deputy for La Libertad advances in the last legislative elections, was forced to decline his candidacy after the journalistic revelation about the millionaire transfer made to him by Fred Machado and revealed by elDiarioAr. The national deputy Juan Grabois filed a criminal complaint against him and they began to investigate him for the transfer and for the alleged attempt to justify funds through simulated acts.
Measures in progress and new revelations
In this case, which is the one based in San Isidro, prosecutor Dominguez is analyzing a wealth of banking, tax and property information on Espert these weeks. In parallel, there are pending measures, for example, within the framework of a request for international legal assistance that was sent to the United States and Guatemala, the country in which the Minas del Sur company, headed by Fred Machado, is based, with which the economist signed a consulting contract in exchange for one million dollars that is under investigation.
Among the documents analyzed by the San Isidro prosecutor is a report on bank transactions in which a series of inconsistencies were found that El Destape revealed days ago. From there, striking differences arise between the amounts that Espert managed before and after meeting Machado.
For example, before meeting the businessman currently detained in the United States and awaiting definitions in the context of a drug trafficking case, Espert was facing a deficit in his accounts. His income in 2019 came from book royalties and payments for consulting tasks. According to the article, he sold dollars to deal with differences. However, the panorama changed starting in March 2019.
From there he began to receive significantly higher income than he was used to. Banking through over-the-counter deposits and self-service ATMs. It is being investigated whether in this way he attempted to evade controls on the origin of the funds.
In the report there is a series of transfers made to him from María Pía Novelli, sister of cryptobro Mauricio Novelli, friend of President Javier Milei and one of the main defendants in the $Libra case, to a firm called 77nauta SA According to the publication, the president and the partner have registered humble addresses in Boulogne, San Isidro district, and in Ezpeleta, Quilmes district.
Dominguez thoroughly analyzes this and other reports linked to the case within the framework of a process that will lead to a call for an investigation. When consulted by Tiempo, Justice avoided estimating when this will happen.
