Leonardo Cositorto, the leader of the Generación Zoe pyramid scheme that funneled millions of dollars from investors all over Argentina, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Tuesday. A court in the city of Goya, Corrientes, ruled that Cositorto was the “ideologue, creator and founder of this criminal conglomerate,” according to Judge Ricardo Carbajal.

Cositorto, a charismatic evangelical pastor, stock trader, and “ontological coach,” founded the Generación Zoe conglomerate in 2017. Over 2020 and 2021, more than 10,000 people invested hundreds of millions of dollars into Zoe’s alleged tech innovations. Some of them were “robots” that promised to predict market fluctuations, a cryptocurrency allegedly backed in gold named “Zoe Cash,” and a “metaverse” for the most expensive mansion in Argentina.

Judicial and independent investigations demonstrated that they were no more than fronts for a pyramid scheme.

The case was covered in national media, documentaries, and a musical theather play.

In 2022, Cositorto was extradited from the Dominican Republic to Argentina and charged with illicit association and fraud by a court in the province of Córdoba. He has been held in preventive detention since.

Cositorto and his accomplices will also be tried in the provinces of Córdoba, Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and Salta.

The court also judged some of Cositorto’s partners. Miguel Ángel Echegaray, Maximiliano Javier Batista and Lucas Damián Camelino were sentenced to eight years for being members of said illicit association and co-perpetrators of fraud. Two men were acquitted.

The prosecutors had requested 16 years for Cositorto. His defense lawyer, Rubén Dragotto, told the Herald the case was not in the court’ purview, and that he intends to get the trial nullified. He also aims to make a case in the Supreme Court.

Before the sentence was read out, Cositorto compared himself favorably to President Javier Milei. “There is this issue of the $Libra crypto, which stole U$S 100 million in four hours, and here we have a lawsuit for U$S 100,000,” he said. “So, if today we get five years for someone here, then the people in $Libra would have to get 500 years in prison. It’s a shame.”

He also announced he would run for the Buenos Aires province legislature.

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