Jorge Leonardo Fariña (born 5 October 1986) is an Argentine who was implicated in the political scandal known as "The Route of the K-Money" involving entrepreneur Lázaro Báez.
Until Fariña became the target of a probe into money laundering in 2013, he was known to the Argentine public chiefly as the husband of famous model Karina Jelinek, who separated from him after the scandal broke.
Because of his high-level involvement in the money manipulations and his marriage to Jelinek, Fariña attracted a great deal of media attention and was identified as the “man most wanted by the [TV interview] programs.” The controversy swirling around both his personal and professional life caused La Nación to state that he was at the center of one of the “scandals of the year.”[1] As of mid 2014, Fariña is in prison awaiting trial.
[5] In late 2010, Fariña approached businessmen and Kirchner intimate Carlos Molinari, head of the firm Rei Fiduciaria, with the idea of starting a luxury-car rental agency.
[10] Fariña gained celebrity as the husband of the famous model Karina Jelinek, whom he met at a party where they were introduced by mutual friends.
Three hundred and fifty guests, including leading politicians, businessmen, models, actors, and journalists, attended their 2011 wedding at the luxurious Palermo Tattersall.
[11] On April 14, 2013, Periodismo para todos (Journalism for All), an investigative-journalism series on Argentinian TV hosted by Jorge Lanata, presented an episode entitled “The K money trail” that included hidden-camera footage on which Fariña described in detail the financial maneuvers whereby Lázaro Báez, a businessman close to the Kirchners, managed to transfer about 55 million euros from Argentina to Switzerland.
[17] Also on April 17, La Nación reported that on March 10, Federal Judge Adolfo Ziulu, in response to a complaint by the tax authorities, had issued a restraint on alienation of properties against Fariña in the amount of 314,686.52 pesos (US$38,000).
Proselac, the Office of Economic Crime and Money Laundering, had received three reports of suspicious transactions from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), headed by José Sbattella.
[32] Testifying again before Casanello in June 2013, Fariña said that he was an auditor for Austral Construcciones, a firm owned by Báez, and that he worked under Molinari, who paid him a monthly salary of 70,000 pesos (US$8,460).
[33] It was reported on June 12, 2013, however, that Fariña's official earnings could not account for the amount of money he had spent in recent years on various high-ticket items, such as his apartment in Buenos Aires and a number of cars, including two Ferraris, an Audi, and a BMW.
[37][38] Appearing in early July on a TV interview show, Fariña repeated his claim that he had not been telling the truth on Lanata's program.
Fariña showed on camera some of his 19 tattoos, including one that read: “Only God can judge me.”[39] On August 28, 2013, Jelinek ended the marriage, reportedly motivated less by his legal troubles than by his extramarital indiscretions during travels abroad.
[46] In reaction, Fariña gave a phone interview to Jorge Rial on Intrusos in which he accused Jelinek of breaking a “pact” she had with him and trying to commit extortion against him.
[62][63][64] In January 2014, shortly after marrying Macarena Perez, Fariña was again detained by the police for driving a vehicle, this time an Audi, for which he did not have the proper papers.
[67] In March 2014, Federico Holjevac, son of a Croatian businessman who was under investigation for fraud, claimed ownership of an impounded Ferrari that he said he had bought from Fariña and that, the FIU believed, had perhaps been transferred as part of a money-laundering operation.
[68] On March 25, by order of Judge Manuel Blanco of La Plata, Fariña was arrested for tax evasion in a hotel in the Palermo section of Buenos Aires.
[72] The “courtroom walls,” stated La Nación in April 2014, were “closing in on Fariña.”[73] In May, Casanello indicted Fariña and Elaskar for money laundering related to Báez's operations.