They claim that former Camporista José Ottavis believes he is Jesus, committed embezzlement from construction projects in Corrientes, and lives in his wife's mansion.

After bursting onto the public scene as a celebrity collector due to his high-profile relationship with showgirl Victoria Xipolitakis , José Ottavis had to put that way of life on hold to recover from his drug addiction. However, that lethargy came to an end this Sunday. Now, the former congressman and member of La Cámpora appeared involved in a new scandal with mystical overtones because he was accused not only of believing himself - and presenting himself as - the reincarnation of Jesus , but also of setting up a civil association that, in Corrientes alone, received millions of pesos for works that were never finished, and of living with his wife, with whom he faces charges of embezzlement , in a luxurious mansion .

The former camper threw himself "fully into religion" and founded a civil association called "Amarte Argentina", which aimed to help people in vulnerable situations and to which he was granted a large amount of money, for example, to carry out works in Monte Caseros, province of Corrientes, through the no less controversial Socio-Urban Integration Fund (FISU), which depended on the Ministry of Social Development, during the administration of Victoria Tolosa Paz.

Celia Fabiana Brítez, the niece of Ottavis's current wife, shares the same first name as her aunt, Celia Itatí Brítez . She provided a shocking testimony in a report released Sunday on TN, providing insight into the alleged embezzlement. She said, first, that she met the former congressman "through a friend who worked with him directly," and that this person went to Monte Caseros and met her relative, whom she described as someone who " worked spiritually, with tarot and whatever has to do with that."

"FISU was there, so they needed the documentation. We did all the fieldwork, showing photos of the neighborhoods in dire straits. We began communicating more with Ottavis," he recounted in the report.

Continuing her story, Brítez emphasized that "after stopping drug use," the former Camporist deputy became involved with "the religious side." "They gave me orders that every Tuesday at 7 p.m. Amarte Argentina had to stop and everyone had to pray the rosary . And whoever didn't pray had to write it down. And they started with the issue of the bag. They didn't take away the bag of food . So they stayed, because these are very vulnerable people," denounced the woman who was in charge of the Amarte Argentina branch in Monte Caseros.

Ottavis's niece-in-law then referred to the Kirchnerist militant's mystical abduction. "He told me, 'Look, I'm the reincarnation of Jesus,' and my aunt was the reincarnation of Mary Magdalene," she recalled.

She also said that one day they went to a church and he tried to force her to take communion , even though she hadn't even taken her first communion. "A month went by, I returned to Buenos Aires, and he was already dressed as a priest . And then my aunt said to me, 'Fabi, do you know what it means when Jesus gives you communion? ' I kept saying to myself that this was getting out of hand," she noted, adding that while this was happening, she was thinking about all the help Amarte Argentina was providing for the neighborhoods.

"We decided to move away, and people came in from all sides. They ransacked the warehouse . I couldn't stop them. I had everything detailed, including which family a license plate belonged to. I couldn't get any reports," he added.

Ottavis and Brítez were charged with embezzlement of public funds and criminal association in 2024. Amarte Argentina received official funds totaling 11.312 billion pesos to carry out works in the province of Corrientes, but they were never completed. Instead, a structure of bogus cooperatives was discovered.

In February 2022, Ottavis's niece-in-law stopped working at Amarte Argentina when she was required to register beneficiaries with the Justicialist Party . "For those who didn't register, there was no food package," she explained.

"When I went to the FISU meeting on Social Development, they presented the file with the executing company, and when I listened, the figures were three times higher than the actual figures for Gaucho Gil or Kilómetro 9. They were exaggerated; they had a file with overprices, with inflated figures, which is what was approved," Brítez explained.

According to documents presented in the television report, Amarte Argentina was to carry out works such as paving, sewage, and electrical wiring, as well as housing in San Ramón Sur.

There was also a commitment to deliver 56 homes—or, as they were defined , "wet units," which were structures with at least a bathroom and kitchen. Of that total, construction only began on 30, but they were never delivered because they were incomplete or poorly constructed . That project alone required 3 billion pesos in FISU funds.

The complaint also covered construction work in the Villa Fedulo and La Rana neighborhoods, totaling another 4 billion pesos. There, a community center and an art factory were to be built, but it was little more than a brick skeleton .

For construction work in the Arca neighborhood, Amarte Argentina received another 600 million pesos to build 57 lots with services, intended for family homes to be built by the families. However, they only limited the land and built a multipurpose hall (MUH).

They are also accused of falsifying signatures and documents to intervene in alleged cooperatives . One of them is Textiles Correntinos, whose president learned of his alleged responsibility after the paperwork was registered at his parents' home .

Another victim, meanwhile, said that when they appointed him as the head of a cooperative, they called him to go to the bank to cancel it. He did so and was given around one hundred thousand pesos that had been deposited in the account, but they also asked for his checkbook, signed blank , and left him without a penny. "That's when I realized they were using people for their own benefit," he emphasized.

The downside of the Corrientes scheme lay in the living standards of the owners of the label that benefited from multimillion-dollar projects during Alberto Fernández's administration. While Ottavis and Brítez failed to deliver on the promised projects and left unfinished warehouses in the process, one property began to attract attention.

According to the report, the mansion where Ottavis lives has three floors and two elevators, a terrace, a utility room, a solarium, a pool, and a jacuzzi , and is filled with images of the Virgin Mary. It's worth nearly a million dollars and is registered in the name of his wife, Celia Brítez.

While journalist Tomás Vidal Adano was filming at the scene for the report "Qué Ves?" (What Do You See?), Luciana Geuna's program on TN, the woman appeared, acting as a housewife and, along with other people close to the former congressman, tried to block the cameras and prevent the journalistic work.