A model at the heart of a high-profile corruption investigation has asked the courts to drop the charges against her, claiming that received all monies legally as an in-demand "travelling companion,."
Sofía Clérici made her first testimony in the so-called “Yatchgate” case this week, which is probing possible illicit enrichment involving Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof’s former Cabinet chief, Martín Insaurralde, and his ex-partner, presenter Jésica Cirio.
Clérici, who travelled to Marbella with Insaurralde for a romantic vacation, caused quite a stir a few weeks before last year's presidential election when images emerged of the duo on holiday aboard a private yacht off the coast of Marbella, Spain.
It emerged this week that Clérici requested her case against her to be dismissed in written testimony presented on May 29. In her statement, she claims to work as a “travelling companion” and denounced her “being objectified as a woman."
Clérici started her pleading by grounding her motion to dismiss and linking her with her profession. In her testimony, she stated that decision to join the trip to Marbella with the former Mayor of Lomas de Zamora does not amount to a crime.
“Due to my fame and public exposure for at least 15 years, my company is highly requested for various events, including long trips abroad,” she explained in her statement, portions of which were read out on television news channels.
She also declared that her role as a “model and travelling companion” during the holiday with Insaurralde on the Marbella beaches “did not cause any condemned legal risk."
Notably, Clérici also mentioned the legal framework on prostitution, attributed to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), to justify the presents and payments she had received .
Although she clarified that her work as a travelling companion “is not related to prostitution,” she highlighted that there is “a vacuum in the tax category."
“I receive fees that are often large sums of money, and on other occasions, expensive gifts such as jewellery, clothes or accessories,” said Clérici about the luxury products she shows on her social networks.
In that context, she quoted the ILO to justify the US$600,000 the courts seized from her house during a search, stating that she is registered as self-employed at the AFIP tax office.
“The result of the search in my home does not reveal any criminal activity,” argued the model.
She further criticised the actions of the courts during the searches:,
:"I was exposed to prejudice and harassment. They published objects that were intimate and private. The intention was clear: to demonise and objectify my status as a woman,” she argued, demanding the return of objects already seized by courts.
– TIMES/PERFIL
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