Lucia Salinas
02/07/2020 - 19:00
- Clarín.com
- Politics
The prosecutor of the National Chamber of Commerce Gabriela Boquin requested the displacement of the administration of Correo Argentino SA, and the appointment of a judicial auditor, to prevent the authorities of the firm belonging to the Macri family "continue with abusive use" of the bankruptcy that, according to the official, is verified with an "inadmissible" extension of the terms (18 years of bankruptcy proceedings) tending to liquefy its liabilities . "With the alleged maneuver, the company would have achieved an" alleged progressive emptying " del Correo, something already denounced by the Prosecutor's Office.
After the scandal that broke out three years ago, when the same prosecutor Boquin denounced that the government - headed by Mauricio Macri- was about to accept a proposal to pay the debt of the Post with the State that implied an intolerable withdrawal and an alleged loss millionaire for the public coffers , in July last year the company of the Macri family presented to the Commercial Justice another payment proposal, which consisted of the cash deposit of 296 million pesos , 30 days after the agreement was approved. In addition, it offered an update on the interests of the debt, but linked to the payment by the State of any of the lawsuits brought by the Mail for the confiscation of the firm in 2003 by Nestor Kirchner.
Given this new offer made, the Treasury Office - the organization responsible for endorsing the agreement or not - required more time to study that proposal and some technical specifications to the company, due to the "institutional gravity of the issue". The then attorney, Bernardo Saravia Frías, requested that this proposal be completely separated from the other cross trials that the company has against the State.
In September of last year, the National Chamber of Commercial Appeals sent to the Supreme Court of Justice the file of the contest of creditors of Correo Argentino SA, the signature of the Socma Group, of the Macri family, making the request of the Procuration of the Treasury.
In parallel, the commercial judge Marta Cirulli ordered the intervention of Correo Argentino SA, appointing a co-administrator. In its resolution, the magistrate granted three powers to the controller: "Participate in the deliberations of the administrative bodies, propose to the Board measures to reduce costs and finally, inform what are the post-bankruptcy liabilities." That intervention did not displace the board of the firm .
But now, the prosecutor Bouquin warned about the "emptying" of the company, and requested a complete intervention, which includes the displacement of the administrative body of Correo Argentino SA, remarking that the company of the Macri family carried out "acts of gravity linked to the emptying ”.
This proposal was formulated within the framework of the opening of the “cramdown” or salvage procedure of the bankrupt firm. In his opinion, Boquin said that at this point it is appropriate that by lottery a judicial auditor with full powers of administration be appointed, until the salvage procedure is concluded, "without affecting the legitimacy of the contestant to seek new conformities to proposals for agreements with creditors. "
In substantiating his request, the representative of the Public Prosecutor's Office said: "the company has been conducted in such a way that this procedure was a tool to defraud the law and the rights of creditors ."
Hardly, Boquin said that “after more than 15 years in which the cramdown procedure should have been channeled - as ordered by the Chamber October 27, 2004 - we are faced with a scenario in which during the long period of time elapsed , the contestant perpetrated acts of gravity -which I have denounced- linked to the emptying of the company or were carried out in violation of the provisions ”in the Contests Law.
On the other hand, he indicated that the bankruptcy liability "increased", which could produce "other acts that continue to aggravate the assets of the bankrupt, reducing their assets and harming creditors if the" cramdown "fails.
The decision of the Prosecutor's Office was extended to the other courts where Correo Argentino SA is investigated in federal jurisdiction, as well as copies were sent to the Office of Administrative Investigations.
History of a complex cause
When the Argentine Courier was privatized, in 1997, the concession remained for 30 years in the hands of a consortium composed of Socma (Macri Family Society, 67%) and minority partners. But the private courier did not pay the fee, and the debt with the state grew until, in 2001, it reached 296 million pesos and entered into bankruptcy proceedings .
In 2003, the Post Office was nationalized by the then President Nestor Kirchner. As a result of Socma's debt, a legal case was initiated for the original balance of 296 million plus interest for updating.
Meanwhile, in those years, the former owners of the Post Office had been increasing their participation in the controlling company, and filed three main claims against the State for 1,700 million pesos, another 500 million pesos and 120 million dollars , plus interest, to compensate for alleged investments made.
But in June 2016, when Mauricio Macri was already in the Casa Rosada. the Government and the company reached a payment agreement, which was never approved, according to which the Macri Group had to pay 300 million pesos in 15 years , with an interest rate of 7%. Prosecutor Boquin rejected that proposal because it was considered "ruinous, abusive" and whose "irregular acceptance" seriously damaged "the assets of the national State."
The prosecutor's argument held that said agreement would imply a 98.2% removal in favor of the firm controlled by the president's family, and a multimillion dollar damage to the State. He calculated in more than 4,000 million pesos the loss for the State, which would cause the "cancellation of the debt" that implied the acceptance of the agreement with the former owners of the Post Office, an amount that would reach a loss of 70,000 million in the year 2033. However, bankruptcy attorney Daniel Vitolo explained that the prosecutor's calculation was wrong because it was a bankrupt company.
This resulted in a criminal case that is in charge of Judge Ariel Lijo , where the former Minister of Communications - current Defense - Oscar Aguad; the then Director of Legal Affairs of that Ministry, Juan Mocoroa; the president of the presidential family business, Jaime Cibils Robirosa; and the lawyer of the firm Jaime Keidermarcher.
Lijo ordered the realization of a "technical accounting report" linked to the cause in which alleged irregularities are investigated in the agreement to pay debts of the company Correo Argentino SA to the national State, within the framework of the firm's creditors' contest, judicial sources reported.
The magistrate asked the Commercial Justice to send him the main body of the contest file, and ordered the study that will analyze the company's debt, and the agreement he had reached with the Government, to determine if it was "abusive" as denounced the attorney general of that jurisdiction, Gabriela Boquin.