CFK faces new corruption charge over hotel purchase

Anti-corruption politician and activist Margarita Stolbizer will lodge yet another criminal complaint against former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner on Monday.

Stolbizer's complaint alleges the Kirchner family business El Retorno, a hotel in the affluent southern city of San Carlos de Bariloche, was obtained with money originating from the Kirchners' alleged illicit business operations.

Fernández de Kirchner and her children face a number of charges related to the family hotel business, Hotesur, particularly money laundering. In other cases, the former head of state is accused of bribery and embezzlement.

The hotel was acquired using "funds from [the Kirchners'] illegal activities", Stolbizer and her lawyer Silvina Martínez allege, in a complaint obtained by Perfil.com. The facility, which closed in 2014, was administered by the accountant Osvaldo 'Bochi' Sanfelice.

El Retorno is located near Lago Gutiérrez, 12 kilometres from the centre of Bariloche. It has 30 employees according to a report broadcast Sunday by pro-government journalist Luis Majul in his La Cornisa programme.

The complaint details how Sanfelice's Idea company administered the hotel from 2013 until renovation work began in 2014. One of the main associates in the firm is Máximo Kirchner, a lawmaker for Buenos Aires province in the national Congress and a key operator in his mother's political alliances.

An associate of Sanfelice's, Adrián Gómez, kept control of the hotel's basic administration following its closure and near abandonment in 2014.

Stolbizer's complaint alleges El Retorno guests received credit card statements in which they were charged for a stay at the Alto Calafate hotel, of the Kirchner family's other hotel businesses.

She includes in the complaint Mauro Sánchez, personal lawyer and employee of media and oil mogul Cristóbal López. Sánchez tried to purchase a hotel, alongside Sanfelice, in the southern city of Ushuaia, the report alleges.

Stolbizer lodged another recent complaint against Fernández de Kirchner, on that occasion for embezzlement and money laundering in cahoots with Sanfelice and a member of her inner circles Marta Leiva.