Leandro boyer
08/22/2020 - 17:05
- Clarín.com
- Politics
The authorities of the Vicentin Group rejected this Saturday the criminal complaint of the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP), for alleged fraudulent maneuvers with apocryphal invoices for $ 110 million , and assured that the accusations are part of an outpost of the Government with " political intentionality " .
"There has not been any type of apocryphal invoice . Each invoice that was made was in order. Most were part of contracts that stock market operators controlled and that had to register with the AFIP, " they said in the company based in the Santa Fe town of Avellaneda.
Thus they discredited the presentation made by the organization led by Mercedes Marcó del Pont , in which it is stated that the company used trout invoices to access VAT refunds for grain exports, between 2016 and 2019 , that is, during the government of Mauricio Macri.
"These types of measures and situations attract a lot of attention because it seems that there is a lot of concern about prioritizing media coverage over the corresponding channels to present these complaints. We found out from the information that the AFIP distributed in the media and here nobody received an official notification ", warned the sources consulted by Clarín.
In this regard, considerThey stated that "someone from the government is making an effort to transform this into a cloud of smoke " and warned that the AFIP's move coincided with a series of events that affected the company and that began to gain strength after the government's frustrated expropriation attempt national. " There is a political intention ," they lamented.
The AFIP complaint
The official body reported this Saturday that it criminally denounced the cereal company and its managers for "using, registering and presenting millionaire apocryphal invoices generated by 54 alleged suppliers ."
The head of the AFIP, Mercedes Marco del Pont.
The AFIP indicated that it made the presentation in the Federal Court of Reconquest, in Santa Fe, with the data that emerged after auditing the VAT refunds that Vicentin requested.
"It was determined, among other elements, that the companies used did not have grain storage plants, did not have economic or financial capacity and could not justify the origin of the merchandise," they argued.
The political crusade and the future of bankruptcy
The case of Vicentin became an emblem of the current political times . The firm, which is going through a bankruptcy process with debts that would exceed $ 99,000 million and faces legal cases for the multimillion-dollar loans it received from the National Bank during the Macri government, has become a symbol of resistance from those who reject the actions of Kirchnerism more Lasted.
Protests against Vicentin's intervention. (Photo: Juan José García).
This category was won during the massive banners that were produced in the country against its intervention and against the intention of the national government to nationalize it to prevent the firm from being in the hands of foreign capital or that its eventual bankruptcy determines the disappearance of thousands of small agricultural producers.
Faced with the mobilizations, the Casa Rosada tried a plan B designed by the governor of Santa Fe, Omar Perotti, so that the state intervention is defined within the framework of the call for creditors, which Judge Fabián Lorenzini, in charge of the Civil and Commercial Court of the 2nd Nomination of Reconquest.
After two hearings with company representatives, including its recently deceased CEO Sergio Nardelli, the alternative fell and shortly after President Fernández annulled the Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) that he signed in the middle of the quarantine against the coronavirus to advance on the cereal.
Omar Perotti announcing his "plan B" after a meeting with Alberto Fernández. (Photo Juano Tesone).
For the opposition, the Vicentin case represented the first "great limit" for the most extreme sectors of Kirchnerism. Apparently, that condition also made the company a political target , or at least its owners see it that way.
It is that in Vicentin they also associate the conflict they have in Algodonera Avellaneda with Kirchner movements , where workers affiliated with the textile union block the income to the company to promote a series of claims.
They also complain because the union protest was endorsed by the Ministry of Labor of the province of Santa Fe, where they supported the demands of the textiles to have representation from the Oil and Ginning Guild.
"As we have repeatedly stated, this is a conflict derived from a problem of union organization outside of us and that must be resolved by the competent authorities of the Ministry of Labor of the Nation," they said in early August through a statement. Now, they expect that in the coming days there will be a pronouncement from the labor portfolio led by Claudio Moroni and even from the authorities of the CGT.
Next Friday the deadline established by Judge Lorenzini for the experts to determine the actual amount of Vicentin's debt, which according to the record, amounts to $ 99,345,263,086.50 and involves 2,638 creditors, will also expire.
And in the first days of September the changes in Vicentin's board will also be formalized. The objective is to displace those who were the subject of complaints for the alleged irregularities in the management of the company and thus improve the context to avoid bankruptcy with a "capital inflow."
"Now the focus is to seek capital income, even with the transformation of the claims into shares. Beyond the State not intervening any more, Vicentin is not going to keep 100 percent of the company. He will probably stay with a A smaller or minimal percentage, because it has a large debt. What is being sought is for companies from abroad, from Argentina, or even suppliers to transform the debts into shares and create a new shareholding matrix, "remarked sources with access to these discussions.
PJB