He is always close to power. In one of the images that accompany this note, for example, he appears taking a photo of former Bolivian President Evo Morales, one of the many political contacts on his agenda, taking a photo on the Boca pitch. His name is Franco Bindi, he has a reputation for daring and is a well-known lawyer in the halls of Comodoro Py, where stories about him have been built based on truths and also on mere assumptions.
Today, this 38-year-old lawyer became the owner of a multimedia company that has a television signal called Canal 4 Extra, a station that they named Radio Extra, and the news portal business.com.ar. All media that, at first glance, seem to target Kirchner audiences in an election year.
The television license was granted last year to a company called Mariv Media Partners, in which Bindi has 90 percent of the shares, while her partners are Manuel Marvaso and Antonio Rivarola with 5% each. Marvaso owns a radio and a portal called Eco Medios and Rivarola is a producer of audiovisual content and previously worked as an employee at Aerolíneas Argentinas.
For Canal 4 Extra, the participation of the journalist and soccer reporter Víctor Hugo Morales, who until March worked at C5N, is already committed. The presence of Victor Hugo plays a double role for Bindi. It will have a weighty figure for Kirchnerism and also a factor of conflict with Grupo Clarín, which must include the channel in the Flow grid because Enacom gave CC4 Extra authorization to broadcast nationwide, that is, all cable operators of the country must upload it to their grid, within the package of cable signals specialized in news. What happens if Clarín puts obstacles to include the channel? Bindi, having Víctor Hugo Morales in his team, has a rhetorical weapon to attack Héctor Magnetto for possible discrimination. The enmity between Morales and Magnetto is well known and even had its judicial chapter a few years ago, which ended in favor of the Clarín shareholder and the journalist with his assets seized. Víctor Hugo was warming up the engines and he already has some pilots recorded.
Another controversial character that Bindi will have will be Tomás Méndez from Córdoba, with his well-known DNA cycle. Méndez, who had a brief stint on Radio Del Plata, will be on Radio Extra every noon with a program called “Nothing is free.” Méndez established a strong relationship with Bindi before the pandemic, in the hottest years of judicial news that had two milestones in 2018 and 2019: the Cuadernos Cause and the so-called “D’Alessio Case”.
In those years, Carlos Stornelli, the prosecutor of the Cuadernos Case, suspected that the “D’Alessio Case” had been promoted by Bindi, whose client was Pedro Etchebest, the agricultural businessman who had denounced that they had wanted to extort money on his behalf. of Stornelli. The protagonist of that story was a false lawyer named Marcelo D’Alessio who had told Etchebest that he was involved in the Cuadernos Cause and that if he paid he could get him removed from the file. For those outrages, D’ Alessio is still in prison.
The media coverage of the “D’Alessio Case” had a special epicenter in the Méndez program on C5N. That television show, in those years, also had the frequent presence of Giselle Robles, Bindi’s partner in her law firm, for what now life brings them back together. Robles also used Méndez’s program to accuse former valise player Leonardo Fariña that his testimonies in court had been scripted. That television vendetta was because Fariña fought with his lawyers who, precisely, they were Robles and Bindi.
Radio. The FM of the new Bindi group is on frequency 107.5 and will be directed by the actor Fernando “Coco” Sily, who will also have his program every morning.
The studios were set up in Palermo, where in the past Gente Radiovisión operated, which Bindi also led after an agreement with Editorial Atlántida to use the brand. In those days, the rumor of Bindi’s friendship with the media Luciana Salazar had emerged after they were talking all night at the party of the people of the year of the magazine Gente in 2021. It was even suspected that Bindi was the source of some tweets with political information that Salazar wrote.
Bindi had a brief stint in the General Union of the Nation (SIGEN) commanded by Alessandra Minnicelli, the wife of former minister Julio De Vido, and also by the Ministry of Security in the years of Aníbal Fernández, back in the early days of Kirchnerism. He was a friend of Miriam Quiroga, the presidential employee who said she was Néstor Kirchner’s lover. And he also had a relationship with Florencia Kirchner, with whom it was said that he had shared an affair.
From those first steps in the public service, while he was studying Law, he went to work for his father’s law firm and began to forge relationships with the world of intelligence. One of his friends, in the middle of the Nisman case, was Allan Bogado, the false intelligence agent that Alberto Nisman pointed out as the link between the Iranians and the Argentine government.
Among Bindi’s famous clients were Lázaro Báez and Leonardo Fariña, with whom he ended up falling out. He is a lawyer for the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA in Argentina and his relationship with that country could be greater than he imagines. He mentioned him as one of the lawyers who helped the crew members of the Iranian-Venezuelan plane who were stranded in Ezeiza. He always denied those links, as did a news item that emerged from Paraguay when it was mentioned that he had arrived in that country along with an agent from the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin). He usually explains that it was a coincidence that he traveled with that person on that same plane and to reinforce the idea he repeats that Javier Milei was also on the flight that same day and that he was not linked to the economist.
Bindi is a friend of former Bolivian President Evo Morales, whom he housed in a house he owns, in Martínez, for almost a year. For that favor he won the affection of Morales. This is why every time he visits Argentina, Morales is always accompanied by Bindi. In July of last year he followed him closely through the Bombonera, and in March of this year they traveled together through Rosario, Puerto Madryn, Neuquén, Chaco, Salta and Jujuy. Bindi always very close to Morales. Taking photos, at times guarding it and also accompanying it in important meetings and personal entertainment. He was showing himself to be someone more relevant than just a consultant, and he was.
Stain. In 2013, Bindi was a fugitive from Justice in a case for the illegal departure of a minor from the country and an Interpol order was issued, which was later discharged. In that case, his reputation is always a surprise for those who greet him for the first time, because when they enter his name in the Google search engine, the information from the Interpol fugitive search appears. Because of that episode, he was in Brazil, a country with which there is no extradition treaty.
Other countries to which he has gone were Venezuela, on several occasions for work; Bolivia, by Evo Morales; Mexico and the United States, for vacations and tourism; and also has a trip to the Seychelles Islands. It is not known why he went to this place. His longest stay outside the country was in Venezuela, where he stayed for about four months. Bindi’s landing in the media is an enigma from an economic point of view. According to channel sources, the money would be his and he still does not have an abundant public and private schedule to face the costs involved in investing in infrastructure, technology and the cachet of the figures.
In any case, it is a personal bet because the lawyer has always been interested in the media. He now owns a news channel and a radio station. And he has an ace up his sleeve called Victor Hugo.
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