Fernando “Lechuga” Pérez Algaba, 41, was killed when he arrived at a property, called Renacer, in General Rodríguez on July 18, 2023, to collect the first US$20,000 installment of what prosecutors say was a debt of more than $50,000.
Maximiliano Pilepich, who had presented himself as a property developer, was there to meet him. As Pérez Algaba changed a light bulb in an office on the site, two bullets fired from more than half a meter away struck him in the back and tore through his lungs and liver, Argentine outlet Infobae reported.
His body was cut apart and packed into a red suitcase, a backpack and plastic bags, then dumped in the Arroyo del Rey stream in the town of Ingeniero Budge.
Children playing nearby found the first remains on July 23, 2023, and his severed head and torso were recovered days later, Spanish daily The Country reported. Investigators identified him from his fingerprints and the distinctive tattoos across his body, according to the Buenos Aires Times.
Pérez Algaba was no obscure victim. He had 900,000 Instagram followers who watched him pose with luxury cars, private jets and yachts.
It was a life he had built from selling sandwiches off a bicycle at 14 into a fortune in cryptocurrency and high-end vehicles. He had settled in Barcelona and returned to Argentina only briefly.
Fernando Perez Algaba made millions of dollars renting out luxury cars and investing in cryptocurrency. Photo courtesy of Instagram |
Prosecutors say the motive was greed. Pilepich and a second defendant, Nahuel Sebastián Vargas, owed the trader money tied to land dealings at Renacer, and rather than pay they arranged to kill him and keep 17 plots in the planned gated community, regional outlet The Union reported.
Trial prosecutor Marcela Dimundo told the court plainly that Pérez Algaba was “killed for money.”
The bait, according to Infobaewas a notarized debt agreement signed at an office in Castelar, staged to convince him the money was finally coming and to draw him to the meeting. The notary who handled it, Carolina Cerrato, is a central witness.
Pilepich, Vargas and a third man, Matías Gil, face charges of aggravated homicide before a 12-member jury at Criminal Court No. 9 of Lomas de Zamora, the Argentine News news agency reported.
Gil, an employee of Pilepich’s construction firm, collected the signed debt papers, and cellphone tower data placed him with the victim on the day of the killing, Infobae reported. Pilepich and Vargas have accused each other, leaving it unclear who fired the fatal shots.
The trial began June 29 and is expected to run until July 9, carrying a possible sentence of life in prison.
The three men on trial are not the only ones accused. Flavia Bomrad, who prosecutors say helped set the trap, will be tried separately, along with former police commissioner Horacio Córdoba, alleged to have dismembered the body, and Fernando Carrizo and Luis Contreras, accused of helping move the remains, according to Argentine News.
Blanca Gladys Cristaldo faces a charge of aggravated cover-up for allegedly hiding Pilepich in her home while he was a fugitive.
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