Cristóbal López says that the AFIP sought to bankrupt his oil company and claims $ 2,000 million

Lucia Salinas

06/19/2020 - 10:12

• Clarín.com
• Politics

The oil company Oil Combustibles, owned by Cristóbal López, accused the AFIP of "making it go bankrupt" and claims compensation from the State for $ 2,000 million. The lawyers of Inversora M&S -controller of the oil company- made the presentation in the case in which the bankruptcy of the company is processed, which accumulated during the government of Cristina Kirchner a debt with the treasury for the Tax on the Transfer of Fuels ( ITC) and other taxes that exceed $ 10 billion . The AFIP maintains that López's oil company charged his company's clients that tax, and that he kept the money instead of transferring it to the State.

Now, López's company stated that it was the treasury that led Oil to fail, and accused him of being a "hostile creditor" who did not seek "to collect the loans but to break the company ." Therefore, they refuse to pay what is claimed by the AFIP. Until the judge defines the situation, the auction of assets was suspended for 90 days.

On May 11 it was two years since the commercial justice decreed the bankruptcy of Oil Combustibles SA (OCSA), the oil company of Cristóbal López and Fabián De Sousa, tried in the criminal jurisdiction for fraud with Ricardo Echegarayfor not having paid the Fuel Transfer Tax (ITC) during the last government of Cristina Kirchner. The case began with a debt that at that time was $ 8,000 million and led to the financial crisis of the company.

Despite the payment facility plans obtained during the last period of Cristina Kirchner in front of the Casa Rosada and with Ricardo Echegaray in front of the AFIP, since last year there is a proposal that seeks to reverse the responsibilities investigated by justice. 

The lawyers for López and De Souza consider that the collecting agency is not the main creditor of the oil company, as indicated by the bankruptcy process and the case in the criminal jurisdiction that is currently in oral trial. They argue that the biggest debt is with Inversora M&S, a member of the same conglomerate.

The judge in charge of bankruptcy analyzes the proposal and, therefore, suspended the auction of goods for Oil Combustibles SA for 90 days. If it determines that the AFIP was, as López and De Sousa say, "a hostile creditor," this takes away from the collecting agency any possibility of claiming debts, because that is what the bankruptcy and bankruptcy law establishes.

As a result of this argument, they filed a claim for damages against the state agency, considering it responsible for the bankruptcy. With this measure López seeks to exclude the AFIP from the possibility of "recovering its credit from the proceeds of the liquidation of the company," said a judicial source.

In their lawsuit, the businessmen asked that all auctions of property that were being carried out in the framework of the bankruptcy be suspended. "We understand that with the refinery that was auctioned off (bought by YPF) it is enough to pay creditors, less to the treasury," they explained from the defense of businessman K.

The claim was made through Oil's parent, which is Inversora M&S. This firm in which Romina Mercado (daughter of Alicia Kirchner) worked, was the one used by Cristóbal López to pay Cristina Kirchner $ 1,727,500 to rent a duplex in Puerto Madero from 2012 to mid-2017, when he was evicted .

In addition to the commercial trial, a criminal justice file was initiated with a multimillion-dollar debt of $ 8,000 million, which covered the period 2011-2015. However, the prosecution's accusation, which was read at the beginning of the trial, is based on the fiscal period from May 2013 to August 2015, two years shorter. 

The expertise carried out by the technicians of the Supreme Court of Justice ordered by the Federal Oral Court 3 (TOF 3) in charge of the case, studied how the company behaved in the face of its fiscal obligations. In the report, it is detailed that as of December 10, 2015, "the debt for Oil's ITC amounted to 6,240,663,823 pesos." This figure does not include interest, and that aspect is taken up in the expertise in point 8, "Summary of balances as of 10/12/2015 ”, where it was requested to detail the unpaid debts accrued, which show the same figure, that is, more than 6,200 million pesos.

When the expertise refers to debts with the treasury, it talks about those that are “not due” in their majority: this is because they are debts entered into payment plans granted by the collecting agency. This is exactly what is investigated in the criminal trial: the reasons for which these plans were granted and the role of the AFIP in demanding the payment of the tax .

During Mauricio Macri's term, the AFIP added the interest on the debt to the claim, with which he claimed Oil in the civil lawsuit that is part of the criminal trial, more than 10,000 million pesos. Given this figure, the defense of López and De Sousa maintains that as of December 2015, they only owed 600 million pesos. However, "it does not include the other plans that are the subject of the investigation," judicial sources explained.