A judge on Thursday ordered ex-president Alberto Fernandez to stand trial for alleged corruption relating to insurance policies taken out by government departments during his 2019-2023 term.
Federal judge Sebastián Casanello indicted Fernández, who led Argentina from 2015 to 2019, for the crime of business transactions incompatible with the exercise of public office.
The indictment was handed down in a case investigating presumed irregularities in contracting insurance for state departments during his presidency.
The crime carries a prison sentence of between one and six years with a lifelong ban from public office.
The ruling was confirmed by defence lawyer Mariana Barbitta, who called it "an arbitrary, unfounded decision" that her team would appeal.
Fernández, 65, is now formally suspected of fraudulent administration over his government’s use of brokers, one of whom had ties to his office, to contract insurance policies which could have been negotiated directly.
The main broker was the husband of the former president’s personal secretary, María Cantero. The former president was aware of the arrangement, the judge's brief said.
Questioned by Casanello last Friday, Fernández denied any wrongdoing.
But the judge found the former president had "created and enabled a permissive environment" that allowed his close circle to profit.
The former secretary, her husband and some 30 others will also face trial in the case.
Intervened
According to the ruling, Fernández intervened to benefit broker Héctor Martínez Sosa, considered part of his inner circle and his main client between 2010 and 2019 when the president-to-be worked as a lawyer and lobbyist.
Martínez Sosa’s wife María Cantero, appointed as the prívate secretary of Fernández when he took office, was also involved.
The case involves policies taken out with Nación Seguros SA, the insurance arm of state-owned Banco Nación, which Fernández chose to cover government departments against various types of risks.
Prosecutors allege middlemen “who performed no real function” collected “lofty” commissions on contracts which could have been placed directly. Fernández obliged state departments to use the broker in a government decree.
The indicted are formally 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 SA.”
According to Casanello, Fernández contributed to the “plan of expanding the business” of the Martínez Sosa group with the state. During his term, that broker received commissions for a total of 2.252 billion pesos – representing nearly 60 percent of the total paid by Nación Seguros. By comparison, the second company in the ranking, headed by the broker Pablo Torres García, received 17 percent.
The judge further slapped a lien of 14,634,220,283.68 pesos (around US$11 million) on the ex-president’s assets.
A further 33 person were indicted, including Cantero, Martínez Sosa and the former head of Nación Seguros, Alberto Pagliano.
The crimes investigated in this file include money-laundering, graft and fraudulent administration aggravated by malfeasance.
Among those involved is Mauro Tanos, who covered the public sector (Gerencia de Área Sector Público Nacional) for Nación Seguros during the Fernández presidency. He was initially promoted to general manager by the Javier Milei government but was removed from the post as the investigation advanced. Tanos and his wife are suspected of having received kickbacks via cooperatives.
The judge also widened the investigation to the companies involved. Eight insurance firms were summoned for questioning with raids ordered on their offices ahead of their indictments being signed.
Fernández is also under investigation for gender violence allegations relating to his ex-partner, former first lady Fabiola Yáñez.
The corruption allegations emerged when a court ordered an examination of his secretary's phone while investigating assault claims lodged by Yáñez.
Yáñez filed a complaint accusing Fernández of having beaten her during their relationship, which ended after the veteran Peronist left office.
He faces a separate trial on charges of domestic abuse.
Fernández has always denied any violence against Yáñez, 43, with whom he has a son born in 2022.
The Peronist leader did not seek re-election after serving a single term, eventually handing the keys of the presidential palace to self-described "anarcho-capitalist" President Javier Milei in December 2023.
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL/AFP
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