Ex-president Alberto Fernández appears in court to challenge judge leading insurance case

Former president Alberto Fernández presented himself Monday at the Comodoro Py federal courthouse in Retiro to demand the recusal of a judge investigating him for corruption allegations.

Fernández, 65, is one of the main defendants in the so-called ‘Seguros’ insurance case probing alleged corruption dating back to his 2019-2023 presidency.

He is suspected of fraudulent administration over his government’s use of brokers, one of which had ties to his office, to contract insurance policies that could have been negotiated directly. The main broker was the husband of the former president’s personal secretary.

Appearing before Federal Appeals Court (Sala II), Fernández’s defence lawyer Mariana Barbitta detailed the motives behind the decision to seek the recusal of Federal Judge Julián Ercolini.

Fernández and his legal team told federal appeals court judge Roberto Boico that Ercolini has “manifest hostility” towards his person and should be removed from the case. 

The summons had initially been scheduled for December 23 but it had to be postponed due to Barbitta being out of the country. 

Fernández is seeking Ercolini’s removal, questioning his supposed impartiality, though he admits the two were previously friends and have known each other “for decades.”

The ex-president said, however, that a distance between them arose when he became head of state.

Ercolini was among who joined a much-criticised trip with other judges, prosecutors, City Hall officials and former intelligence agents to Lago Escondido in October 2022, at the alleged invitation of the multimedia group Clarín. 

The judge denies the claims and says there is no reason to acknowledge the recusal because this would affect “the principle of natural judge” in the investigation. He thus rejected in limine both the recusal and the request that it be passed to review by the City Federal Appeals Court. 

Allegations

The central accusation in the insurance case is aimed at Fernández, a number of insurance brokers and various employees of the Nación Seguros private insurance firm, including Alberto Pagliano, Gustavo García Argibay, Sebastián Diaz Bancalari, Fernando Arana, Carlos Soria and Mauro Tanos. 

The indicted are accused of “having intervened in a co-ordinated and functional manner, approximately between December, 2019 and December, 2023, in a scheme for collecting and distributing public funds via the irregular redirection of the insurance contracts and intermediation undertaken by various public offices with NACIÓN SEGUROS S.A.”

According to the court, a “mechanism to direct” the choice of brokers for state contracts had been implemented between 2019 and 2023 with the appointments by public organisms thus serving as a smokescreen in many cases. 

In that sense Ercolini has accused the ex-president of controlling the entire manoeuvre through rules issued by him via Decree 823/21. 

“Taking advantage of his office, the aforementioned had retained the prerogative of the final decision in the event of disputes between other members of the group, taking it upon himself to direct the cases where previous efforts had proved fruitless,” charged the judge.

During his interrogation last November, the ex-president refused to answer the questions of judge Ercolini and the prosecutor Carlos Rívolo, only presenting a writ in which he defended Decree 823/2021, maintaining that this norm, which handed over a monopoly to Nación Seguros had ended the previous “cartel” while stating that he had not promoted the decree.

At the same time, he sought to disconnect himself from Héctor Martínez Sosa, the husband of his former private secretary, María Cantero.

“I’ve always had an affectionate relationship with him but I never asked anybody to pass state insurance through his hands nor took him on as an insurance advisor,” said Fernández in his submission to the court. 

“Héctor Martínez Sosa knows me and my rigidity over this issue. In the four years of my term I don’t believe I have seen him or spoken to him more than four or five times and we always chatted about social questions, never business, of which I’m unaware. I don’t believe it to be a crime to know him,” Fernández indicated.

– TIMES/NA/PERFIL