Lucia Salinas
07/29/2020 - 15:31
- Clarín.com
- Politics
" Lázaro Báez did not act in a solitary or disorganized way , everything was done collectively, with people of various specialties, professionals of illicit assets (...) sought to legitimize the funds of illicit origin," said the prosecutor before the Court. , Abel Córdoba in the second stage of his allegations in the case of the Ruta del Dinero K, where this Thursday he will announce what his request for conviction will be for businessman K and 16 other defendants, who laundered at least 60 million dollars. He will ask for condemnation for all , and reiterated that all the laundering maneuvers "started and ended in Austral Construcciones and in Báez."
Prosecutor Abel Córdoba started his accusations last week, when he maintained that the former commercial partner of Cristina Kirchner headed an "organization that was dedicated to moving hidden money" and that the preceding crime of such operations were both "tax maneuvers" and the work public ". Those irregularities are judged in another file, in which Báez is accused along with Cristina Kirchner. Córdoba said that the contracts obtained by Austral were "the origin of the illegal laundering, such as that of the preceding crime and the key to the repatriation of funds."
The criminal maneuver had Austral Construcciones as its centerpiece, which received state funds through road contracts. The complaints from the Financial Information Unit (UIF), the AFIP and the Anti-Corruption Office (OA) have already asked for sentences for the businessman : nine years, eight and eight and a half years, respectively. They all maintained that part of the money that Báez received for the public work was turned over to the judged operations.
The crime attributed in this case was considered a "conglobante prosecution" -as it was resolved in three stages-, and was for "joining a gang dedicated to laundering money between 2010 and 2013 aggravated by habituality". The "hoarding of funds in Switzerland" was also taken into account, in addition to the externalization of money and its re-entry into the country.
On this second day, and prior to the conviction request against businessman K, the representative of the Public Prosecutor's Office detailed at least six instances in which money "of illicit origin" was moved and joined "a complex structure, the organization criminal "in order to launder funds. Then, he explained that for this to happen , "there was not only liquid money that came from Austral Construcciones, but also" high levels of secrecy. "
In this regard, he explained that the money laundering engineering used "existing companies, parallel vehicles, where 17 wills were also combined with their own, defined acts." All this enabled money to be channeled, "a second stage of its atomization, the interruption of any type of traceability, the concealment of the origin of illicit money."
Once again he charged against Báez, whom he had already identified as "the head of the entire organization" and on this occasion highlighted: "Everything was carried out under the orders of Lázaro Báez. After all that circuit, the funds returned to accounting Austral by decision of Báez ".
For the prosecutor before TOF 4, there is no longer any doubt that the origin of the money spent on money laundering operations between 2010 and 2013, "had an illicit origin". If it had been legal money, Córdoba remarked "they had less options intricate, less expensive and more linked to the base activity to capitalize Austral Construcciones ".
That was not the real objective, according to the prosecution, but rather that each account based in Switzerland, each offshore company created in tax havens, had a single purpose: to launder money. " Báez knew that there were other more basic and legal circuits, he chose others ." It was when he indicated that this closed circuit where large sums of money were moved, with little transparency with respect to the final beneficiaries, "begins and ends at Austral Construcciones and Lázaro Báez." All this operation confirms - concluded Córdoba-, "the illicit origin of the funds. What they did was participate in a money laundering structure in a plural and organized way."
In the first section of his proposal, he had outlined that Lázaro Báez was "at the head of an organization that operated with hidden funds."
Córdoba considered that Báez "was the creator, the architect of the network that from Austral branched out to other firms used for the laundering maneuvers." And he reinforced the concept: "The organization with a transnational deployment led Lázaro Báez, who held the full power of Austral as the laundering organization, had the entire relevant structure with the unconditional collaboration of formal partners, from their managers, their subordinates and even family members. "
