TO Leonardo Scatturice They know him for several things. Some certain, other exaggerated, and others that he let himself run. One of the most repeated – like an anecdote that has already become myth – is that it has a bullet in a buttock. It is not that he is showing him, but some who know him for a long time say it is true. It happened in the early 2000s, when he still moved at night, he did loose jobs for the Buenos Aires police and wove links with that part of the state that does not always use uniform: intelligence services.
He had good arrival to the police and the SIDE. His was to place himself near the interesting conversations and gain the confidence of his interlocutor. There appeared a commissioner, Alejandro Elorz, who sponsored him and with whom years later they would create a private flight company in Aeroparque. It is not clear if it was a profitable venture or a neat cover, but the relationship between them was narrow. Almost familiar.
The episode of the bullet was an unnoticed visit home, An adjustment of accounts or something similar from the one who could escape. It did not end in tragedy, but since then it has that scar as a practical reminder that the edges of legality sometimes scrape.
This week, Scatturice was under the magnifying glass for a judicial file that drags since February and now threatens to climb. An employee of the company OCP Tech, Laura Belén Arrieta, entered the country on a private flight – also a scatturice company – carrying suitcases that, according to justice, did not go through customs controls. The flight landed in Aeroparque on February 26, 2025 and remained in the country until March 5. Since then, the theme became a true file in motion. According to the joint opinion of the National Prosecutor’s Office in the Economic Criminal Prosecutor and the Attorney General’s Office, the income, permanence and exit of that aircraft are plagued by irregularities.
The Fiscal Report speaks of omissions in customs controls, migratory failures and striking details such as the lack of scan of the suitcases -which is now known that there were ten and not five, as stated at first -the absence of official custody while the plane was on the ground and a fact that seems less, but it is not: According to the official records, the airport from where the flight was departed was Fort Lauderdale although then the co-pilot spoke of OPA-Locka, another Florida airport where the Aviation companies of Scatturice operate.
The co -pilot Juan Pablo Pinto, also a Scatturice employee, went out to bank the stop with an extensive judicial discharge in which he tried to explain the questions and took care of some packages attributed to Lrarieta. He said the luggage was everything declared and accused the means of putting together a “reckless and irresponsible scandal.” He accompanied the defense with receipts and captures of Amazon’s purchases.
Pinto said that they were received by Customs and the PSA, that there was an eye inspection of the plane and that two suitcases were up because they were going to use them on the return flight. According to him, everything in order. But prosecutors Claudio Navas Rial and Sergio Rodríguez did not keep their version. They used official images, airport staff statements and records to assemble the full sequence. There are even more evidence requested by officials to the economic criminal judge Pablo Yadarola. The opinion also marks that the crew and the only passenger would not have correctly completed the migratory procedures. And there is a scene that might seem of a Netflix series, but it is real: during the operation, Arrieta gave a cell phone to a customs agent, who then made an approval gesture. That simple movement – at the top, head that nods – activated new judicial measures. Now prosecutors want to know who that phone was and what was discussed in those hours. On the other side of the cell phone, were the agent to open the way?
All this not only put Scatturice in the judicial radar. He also transformed it into a headache for the government of Javier Milei, for whom he provides lobby services in the United States and sells his services to different distributions of the State. Through its Lobby agency, Tactic Global, as reported by the company to the Department of Justice, advises the Argentine Intelligence Secretariat to make efforts with the United States government and vice versa. This company is headed by former Donald Trump advisor, Barry Bennet, with whom Scatturice and the US president agreed a few weeks ago in a theater gala in which the play “Los Miserables” was presented. The photo, in which the three smiling ones appear, was distributed by Milei’s own government to legitimize the figure of the lobbist.
Scatturice businesses.
Scatturice maintains active contracts with at least three units of the national state Argentine through his company OCP Tech. Only between the late 2024 and early 2025, was awarded millionaire public tenders in the Ministry of Economy, the General Secretariat of the Presidency and the Ministry of Education. In October 2024, OCP Tech won the tender to provide professional servers and services for the Datacenter of the Ministry of Economy, for a 36 -month contract. In December 2024, the company was one of the awarding of a tender for the provision of computer and network supplies to the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Nation, together with other companies. His most relevant contract with the Argentine State was given by the former Minister of Education, Esteban Bullrich. It is with the public company Educar SA, responsible for digital infrastructure, which connects 41,600 schools throughout the country. That key contract to sustain the Connect Equality Plan was renewed during the management of Alberto Fernández and also for Milei, in October 2024, for 60 million dollars. Because of his link with the Ministry of Education at the time of Mauricio Macri he met Manuel Vidal, who worked with Bullrich and today is a friend and advisor to Santiago Caputo. If the question of how Scatturize to the Government of Milei had to be answered, the answer in Vidal would have to be sought.
All Scatturice businesses are monitored from the United States Because, being processing the Green Card, his lawyers recommended not to leave that country, so he has not visited Argentina for more than two years. Scatturice settled in Miami after spending a few years in Panama, a destination that chose for fear of possible judicial problems in Argentina derived from a file known as Dark Star, a cause in which his phone was intervened by Antonio “Jaime” stiuso, the once almight Scatturice spoke. In those years there was an internal strong in the SIDE between Stiuso and Pocino. From those conversations, a lot of information about the Scatturice links arises, who had a private intelligence company called C3 Consulting and with which he did work for entrepreneurs and also for intelligence agencies from other countries such as the CIA, through orders made by the intelligence entrepreneur Frank Holder. In 2015, Holder spoke with news about his link with Scatturice.
News: What is your relationship with Leonardo Scatturice? Did you work for you?
Frank Holder: Yes, I know him. But he was never my employee, as stated. He has a research agency and I have a larger research agency (Berkeley Research Group), and when I have clients who have certain needs sometimes subcontract to other smaller agencies.
From the chats, conversations with the media entrepreneur Daniel Hadad, with whom they talk about current issues and exchange information arise. With Hadad the link was strengthened over the years and until they did business. In 2017, Scatturice bought an apartment at the Continuum South Beach Condo complex. The friendship with Scatturice brought Hadad many joys. One of the most important is that Scatturice introduced his friend and partner Mario de la Fuente, today owner of the Boken clothing brand. De la Fuente is a former policeman of the Buenos Aires who participated in the operation that culminated in the Avellaneda massacre in which the militants of the leftist Maximilian Kosteki and Darío Santillán died. Many years later, De la Fuente began working with Hadad and over the years he joined the family.
Hadad spends much of the year in Miami, from where he handles the different writings of Infobae, the most read news portal in Argentina. From there he also also travels to Mexico to visit the writing, but never sleeps in that country, for his publications against the narcos. To enter and leave the DF uses the scatturice planes, which at this point already has four aviation companies: Surjet, Angel Aviation, Royal Class and Flybondi, their most recent acquisition. All these companies are under the umbrella of the Global COC company, the group with which it also manages the rest of the businesses, such as the Global Lobby Tactic agency, with which they also advise Vietnam, and the representative of Cisco, OCP Tech, with which it has a presence in Ecuador, Colombia and Peru, among other countries in America. Among all its businesses it has around 6,500 employees.
Scatturice arose from Lanús with some talent for personal relationships, but over the years he became a true specialist in getting information and doing good business. That life to the limit led him to leave the country and rebuild his life abroad. Today he is a millionaire and moves near power. It was not bad.
