Fariña testified and said he was visiting a friend in the raided “cave” where he was detained

The financier Leonardo Fariña and four other detainees testified before the Economic Criminal Judge, Pablo Yadarola, in the framework of an inquiry into the investigation after the raids on the so-called “caves” that were carried out last Wednesday. Fariña was transferred this morning from the police station where he is housed to the building on Avenida de los Migrantes, where the Court is based.Prior to the inquest, the judge will lift Fariña’s incommunicado detention so that he can hold a first interview with his lawyer, Roberto Herrera, who plans to ask for his release.What could be the penalty for Fariña and the other detainees? The Foreign Exchange Penal Regime establishes penalties of up to eight years’ imprisonment for “any exchange negotiation that is carried out without the intervention of an institution authorized to carry out such operations.” The law also represses “operating in exchanges without being authorized to do so; any exchange operation that is not carried out for the amount, currency or rate of quotation, within the deadlines and other conditions established by the rules in force”. The initial penalty for this type of offence is only a fine and begins to contemplate a prison sentence from the first offence. In addition, Fariña was free but monitored with an electronic ankle bracelet due to the three-and-a-half-year prison sentence set by the Court of Cassation and which is final. The financier had more than a year of effective imprisonment left to serve, but his arrest was not ordered – despite the fact that prosecutor Abel Córdoba had requested it – because he agreed to the conditional release regime.

Original source in Spanish