Lucia Salinas
02/19/2021 11:47 AM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 02/19/2021 11:47 AM
A technical report from the Court's Directorate for Judicial Assistance in Complex Crimes and Organized Crime (DAJUDECO)
endorsed the theory of prosecutor K Gabriela Boquín regarding the alleged "abusive" conditions
of the debt payment proposal that the Argentine Post Office , managed by Socma SA -owned by the Macri- family, maintained with the State.
That plan, which after the scandal came to nothing, was formulated by the firm in 2017, when Mauricio Macri was president.
Sources of the criminal investigation maintain that this work would have estimated a reduction of 93% in the amount of the debt, close to the number of the prosecutor Boquín.
But the company's lawyers refute it: according to them there is a "technical error", and they focus on another number.
"Boquín ruled that the debt would amount to
70,000 million pesos
, but this report concluded that
the debt would amount to 821,336,152 pesos
."
Judge
Ariel Lijo
did not ask to settle that amount, but to gather evidence to establish
whether or not the agreement was unfavorable for the State,
and if so,
what federal crime would have been committed.
While the civil and commercial justice carries out the preventive bankruptcy of Correo SA -where the company's debt is negotiated and discussed, its claim for a simultaneous debt of the State with it and the possible plans to pay- there is another file in Comodoro Py that It is investigating the alleged irregularities in the firm's latest payment proposal, which the Macri government was about to accept.
As a test measure, in 2019 Judge Lijo ordered a technical report to DAJUDECO.
In this analysis, to which
Clarín
agreed
, the six payment proposals that the Argentine Mail made to its creditors were studied, the State being the main one.
They were formulated from September 2003 to June 28, 2016, when Mauricio Macri was in front of the Casa Rosada.
"All the proposals are similar in their essence"
, explained from the defense of the Socma Group.
What was ordered is to perform calculations based on a lucky formula, "an application", as explained by sources in the case.
Why?
Because in the case filed in Comodoro Py
it is not studied how much the debt amounts to, but whether the agreement that was not signed was going to be ruinous for the State
.
Judge Lijo asked the experts to consider various aspects: the amounts discussed, the dates of payment, the cessation of the same, also the interest.
Then, it was requested that the coefficient and the proposed interest rates be taken into account, to determine
if the reduction that was applied in the agreement was unfavorable for the State.
The study then weighed the fees proposed by the Socma Group - a total of 16 - and the amount thereof.
"Crossing these variables, this kind of calculator used yielded
126 possibilities,
" judicial sources explained to
Clarín
.
But in all of them,
the reduction was higher than 93%
.
Between the "best" option and the worst, which is the one calculated by the prosecutor Boquín (98%), only a 5% difference was obtained.
"The report thus confirms that it was an abusive agreement
,
" they
indicated from the case.
Socma attorneys differ.
"The Dajudeco report contains an error in approach and calculation regarding the removal. The prosecutor estimates a reduction of 90% on an alleged debt of 70,000 million pesos, with which the
removal cannot be similar if the debt is much less
, as Dajudeco concludes, while the offer is the same, "they indicated.
For example, the report details that
the first four installments were going to be 2,962,053 pesos
, and they began to be paid annually from 2019. The next five installments were 5,924,107 pesos, while the next two were going to be 8, 8 million.
Only in the twelve installment the numbers soar, with two installments of 44 million pesos, one of 60 million and the
last two 88 million and 258 million pesos respectively.
"This shows that the agreement was not favorable for the State, the debt was paid practically in the last two installments, and the remaining fourteen were of much lower figures,"
sources from the file
explained to
Clarín
.
The company maintains that "in that quota plan it was proposed that
when the State paid the debt admitted with the Group of more than 300 million pesos
, all the payments that Correo paid would be updated immediately with that rate."
The business group insists that the state wants to bankrupt Correo SA, and they attribute everything to political persecution.
They emphasize that the technical report "demolishes the accusation of the prosecutor Boquín, who ruled that the debt of Correo Argentino SA would amount to 70,000 million pesos, but the Dajudeco concluded that the debt could only rise, according to the update index that is apply, to 821,336,152 pesos ".
In fact, the work takes that figure as the lowest possible of four different ones, established according to the type of interest rate taken.
The highest of all barely exceeds 4,000 million pesos.
Neither that amount nor the proceeding of the prosecutor Boquín are subject to the criminal case, but company sources maintain that
"the figure is not less, because the case in Comodoro Py began because they said that 70,000 million was owed and it is not like that" .
With a marked controversy in the reading of the expert report, Judge Lijo will analyze the evidence again, and the parties were asked to comment on the report.
Ahead,
new calls for inquiry are not ruled out.
A case with history
In 2003, the Post was nationalized by then-President Néstor Kirchner.
As a result of the Socma debt, a legal case was initiated for the original balance of
296 million pesos / dollars,
plus a percentage of interest as an update.
Meanwhile, in those years, the former owners of the Post Office had been increasing their participation in the controlling company, and presented a series of
claims against the State for 1,700 million pesos, 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, according to which the Macri Group had to pay 300 million pesos in 15 years, with an interest rate of 7%.
At the end of that year, the prosecutor Gabriela Boquín rejected that proposal, considering it "ruinous, abusive" and whose "irregular acceptance seriously damages the patrimony of the national State."
The latter was what deputies of Kirchnerism denounced in Comodoro Py and gave rise to the file in charge of Judge Lijo and prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita.
The company's debt and the alleged responsibility of the officials in negotiating the signing of the Post with the State to settle a debt accumulated over years is under analysis.