Patagonian Province Santa Cruz The area where former Argentine presidents Nestor Kirchner and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner lived. established their power. The country’s southernmost region is now the source of its biggest judicial problems. The state attorney’s office on Monday accused Fernandez de Kirchner, today’s vice president, of running an “illegal pyramid scheme” with her late husband in the final phase of an investigation into abuses at fifty public works in Santa Cruz. Cheating the government by diverting public funds that should have been earmarked for road infrastructure.
“When Néstor Kirchner took office as president, then his wife, Cristina Elizabeth Fernandez, established and maintained one of the most extraordinary metrics of corruption that has unfortunately and unfortunately developed in the country in the national and provincial administration of Santa Cruz,” he said. Prosecutor Diego Luciani read the indictments on the first day of the Federal Oral Court 2, which was conducted via video conference. The Vice President also almost listened to him.
His harsh allegations contrasted with a request two weeks earlier that another of the plaintiffs, the Financial Intelligence Unit, was acquitted. Prosecutors from Argentina’s anti-money laundering agency have asked Kirchner to be cleared of all charges and given a lesser sentence to high-ranking provincial officials.
According to Luciani, the illegal association, led by the married couple of former presidents, had a wide capacity for action, which lasted for more than a decade “completely unchecked” by state institutions. The prosecutor accused his “close friend” of turning Lázaro Baez into an “overnight” construction tycoon and diverting large sums of public funds through contracts awarded to his main company, Astral Constructions.
“Báez’s previous job was as a bank teller. A person who had never been in the business sector created a construction company and then was going to take over all the construction companies in Santa Cruz,” Luciani asserted before the judges.
According to data provided by the lawyer throughout the morning, 78% of the concessionary road work in Santa Cruz between 2003 and 2015 went to the Báez group. They did so with unusual speed: 29 days compared to an average of 210 for other companies. However, the response is insufficient. Almost half of the assigned tasks – 24 out of a total of 51 – remained unfinished, and only one of them was adjusted to the original budget and did not require additional funding.
The investigation, which began in May 2019, charged Fernandez de Kirchner and senior management officials with illegal communications and public administration fraud. Among the 13 defendants, Lázaro Baez, former Federal Planning Minister Julio de Vito and former Public Works Secretary Jose Lopez stand out.
Pace was sentenced to 12 years in prison last year. The highest sentence for this crime was imposed in Argentina for embezzling $55 million between 2003 and 2015. The court also imposed a fine of $480 million. De Vido and Lopez also reach the end of the trial, along with other previous convictions.
Lawyers for Kirchner, who is now vice president, allege that he had no knowledge of the fraud schemes in Santa Cruz. Throughout his presentation, Luciani showed hundreds of messages that attempt to break through this line of defense. The public prosecutor’s office has nine days to frame charges against the accused.
Subscribe here EL PAÍS Newsletter for the Americas and get all the important information about current affairs in the region
