The prosecutor is waiting for a report to investigate individuals linked to illegal sports betting companies.
Paraguay.- Prosecutor Marcelo Saldívar is advancing the investigation focused on the actions of Montego Trading, which, according to the complaint filed in October by the National Gambling Commission (Conajzar), allegedly committed crimes of illegal gambling exploitation and fraud. Additionally, Saldívar is investigating the shareholders and executives of Amazing, for alleged production of non-authentic documents.
According to the local media La Nación, the representative of the Public Ministry requested reports from the National Directorate of Tax Revenues (DNIT) in order to identify the representatives of the said firm and subsequently summon them to an investigative hearing for illegal gambling exploitation.
Saldívar explained: "We requested reports from the DNIT to find out who the legal representatives of the firm are and who are the individuals subject to criminal proceedings" and added that once they have the reports from the DNIT, they will summon the individuals for the investigative hearing.
In October, the prosecutor Marco González and Carlos Liseras, head of Conajzar, formally filed a complaint against Ariel Alegre Colmán and Abigail Alegre Colmán, of Amazing S.A., and Gerardo Bermúdez Arreola, Nasry Árguedas Safie, and Erick Vázquez Loza, of the company Montego Trading S.A.
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The document presented by González and Liseras states that the firm Amazing allegedly breached the contractual good faith granted by Conajzar through the concession contract for the exploitation of electronic virtual game machines.
“This harmful and premeditated behavior, lacking legality biases, consisted of the false declaration of an obligation assumed in said contract, specifically in the presentation of guarantees in the form of insurance policies. This allowed the continuation of the contract execution with the aim of continuing to generate economic benefits from the gambling exploitation, without providing the necessary cautions that provide legal security to the contracting parties in case of non-payment of the agreed fee,” they assert in the text.
On the other hand, in the complaint against the firm Montego Trading, the State accuses them of clandestinely exploiting sports betting, harming not only the players but also the public treasury.
«Conajzar became aware that the firm Montego Trading, through the website crowncityplay.com.py, continues to illegally and clandestinely exploit the gambling modality called sports betting. The offer of sports betting made through this website violates the rights, constitutional and legal guarantees of the bettors and the awarded firm, which, given the urgency of the case, makes it imperative to proceed with the blocking of the domains detailed in the report from the National Computing Center», the document states.
Furthermore, the complainants added that the indications are serious, given that the denounced firms act outside the law, “thus causing damage to the public treasury”.
