Roads: Cristina Kirchner's maneuver to declare bankruptcy and avoid returning $55 million stolen from the State

In August 2016, three days after being prosecuted in the Highways case, Cristina Kirchner engaged in a maneuver typical of white-collar crimes: an early inheritance of assets to her children, Máximos and Florencia , to avoid returning to the State the public funds stolen in complicity with Lázaro Báez.

At that time, Cristina announced that she was ceding "50% of the financial assets, personal property, and real estate that belonged to me as community property in the estate of Néstor Carlos Kirchner were legitimately and legally transferred to my children, within the inheritance proceedings." The other 50% belonged to her children. She was left with only $200,000.

Now prosecutors Diego Lucini and Sergio Mola should charge her with fraudulent insolvency so that she returns $55 million for the theft from the State in the allocation of public works contracts to Lázaro Báez for $3.5 billion.

When the Second Federal Oral Court (TOF 2) sentenced the former president and eight other defendants for fraud, the State set the amount to be jointly confiscated at approximately $500 million . Of that total, Cristina is entitled to $55 million, according to an initial estimate, although the TOF 2 asked the Court's Corps of Experts this week to update that figure.

As most of the convicted individuals are expected to plead insolvent, prosecutors Diego Luciani and Sergio Mola have already seized 145 properties, 42 cars, 2 boats, 18 banking products, and 11 company shares from all of the convicted individuals.

Following the arrest of the former president and the other eight convicted individuals, prosecutors will request to open what is known as an incident in the case to decide how to recover that money from the State. According to Civic Coalition representative Juan Manuel López, Luciani and Mola should file charges against Cristina for the crime of "fraudulent insolvency."

Former head of the Financial Information Unit (FIU), Mariano Federici, told Clarín that he agrees with Elisa Carrió's deputy. Federici provided key information in the case when he was an official under Mauricio Macri.

Federici explained that "it is highly likely that a significant portion of the assets constituting the proceeds of crime have not yet been legalized (laundered), and that many others have been subject to fraudulent disposal maneuvers intended to formally extract them from their personal assets ."

"His declared assets (about $200,000) are far from reflecting the true magnitude of the illicit funds obtained ," he added.

"A portion of the stolen assets remains hidden; another portion remained in the hands of front men and close associates, such as Daniel Muñoz and Báez; and another portion—the already laundered portion—was allegedly transferred, possibly through simulated or fraudulent acts, to his children, in order to protect them from potential asset recovery actions," Federici said. Former Secretary Muñoz invested $65 million in properties in Miami and New York.

During the sentence enforcement phase, "it is appropriate for prosecutors to comprehensively investigate all identifiable assets (hotels, real estate, bank accounts, companies, etc.)," ​​he added.

"If the lack of sufficient assets is alleged, the possibility of fraudulent insolvency must be considered in order to prevent these asset-draining schemes from actually frustrating the effectiveness of the judgment," Federici emphasized.

How does the process work? First, the judges of the Second Federal Court of Justice will ask the convicted individuals to jointly cover this sum. Since most of them will claim they don't have the money, the assets already seized will be auctioned off, according to a list compiled by Judge Julián Ercolini and Prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita during the investigation into the case.

The $500 million claim is for damages caused to the state by unfinished projects, overpricing, financial overpayments, and other crimes.

In addition to Cristina, the other convicted individuals must pay this reparation to the State: Báez, Mauricio Collareda, Raúl Osvaldo Daruich, José López, Raúl Gilberto Pavesi, Nelson Guillermo Periotti, José Raúl Santibáñez, and Juan Carlos Villafañe.

In court, the former president is expected to use the same strategy as former Menemist Environment Secretary María Julia Alsogaray, who was sentenced in 2014 to four years in prison and ordered to return $1 million in a case for illicit enrichment. She declared bankruptcy, and her mansion, built on the site of a former petit hotel in Recoleta, was seized and auctioned off.

Furthermore, in November of last year, Milei revoked Cristina's 14 million peso pension, following the Court of Cassation's decision to uphold her conviction in the Vialidad case. It is unknown whether she will receive her salary as president of the Partido Popular (PJ) and leader of the Instituto Patria (Homeland Institute).

Prosecutors Luciani and Mola have already asked Judge Jorge Gorini to allocate the more than $500 million that must be seized from the assets and accounts of Cristina Kirchner and other convicted individuals to schools, public hospitals, or other social purposes.

Confiscation to build schools

In a written statement, prosecutors requested "ensuring that the confiscation serves a social purpose . In other words, full compensation must be provided for the serious damage caused by the colossal fraud perpetrated by the highest authorities of the Executive Branch and a private individual to the detriment of the State."

In particular, "they cause serious social harm , given that the public funds diverted to finance corruption significantly reduce the State's capacity to meet the population's basic needs in terms of health, pensions, social assistance, infrastructure, education, housing, employment, and justice," they argued in the document presented this week and obtained by Clarín.

Therefore, "corruption directly undermines the democratic principles of the rule of law by preventing the full exercise and enjoyment of human rights," they added.

Therefore, "the neediest people were deprived of the funds that ended up in the pockets of those convicted." These funds could have been used to partially alleviate the formidable poverty that has existed in the country for decades. That is, they could have been used for progress and development.

And this is because, ultimately, "corruption prevents these funds from being used for worthy purposes. In other words, it forces cuts to essential public policies, which exacerbates social inequalities and condemns vulnerable sectors to poverty and precariousness ."

The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation took into account considerations of this nature when issuing Resolution No. 2/18, which regulated the specific actions to achieve the identification, location, seizure, and confiscation of assets, and the recovery of assets.

Furthermore, it stipulated that "the proceeds from the sale of the items seized pursuant to Law 20,785 and the confiscated assets must be deposited by the respective banking institutions into accounts opened in the name of this Court."

Cristina says she only has US$200,000

Now, as of January 22nd, Cristina declared assets of 249,421,220 pesos to the Anti-Corruption Office. These assets include a 1.8 Corolla Seg Hev, the usufruct of the apartment in the Recoleta neighborhood, and a plot of land in El Calafate, plus shares in Mercado Libre and Apple, among others. She valued the apartment in the Recoleta neighborhood at 35,706,295 pesos, and the residence in El Calafate at 24,848,436.

Cristina Kirchner owns 39,771,286 pesos in Mercado Libre shares and 34,660,857.00 pesos in Apple shares. She also declared 1,203 shares in Vista Oil (which Miguel Galuccio was president of), worth 34,224,147 pesos, among others.

His group of assets were passed on to his children with that 2016 maneuver. Thus, Máximo and Florencia have 25 properties (2 in Capital and 23 in Santa Cruz), a car, shares in the companies Hotesur and Los Sauces and US$ 5,969,144 and $ 53 thousand, which are their father's assets and those transferred to him by Cristina.

In his 2023 asset declaration, Máximo claimed to have a fortune of 4,719,066,772 (about $4 million).

Aside from the fraudulent insolvency charge that prosecutors are said to have filed against Cristina, Máximo is being prosecuted in the money laundering case called Hotesur and Los Sauces, and the hotels, now in his name and those of his sister, are being seized.

Florencia, however, was acquitted and no legal case has ever been filed against her, beyond the nearly $5 million found in a safe deposit box at Banco Galicia, which was also an advance donation from her mother.