Lucia Salinas
02/24/2021 3:24 PM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 02/24/2021 3:24 PM
In 2003, Lázaro Báez had only one house
and one position in the residual bank created when Banco Santa Cruz was privatized.
During the twelve years of Kirchnerism, he accumulated 1,412 properties and vehicles
, and far from the 66 million pesos that he declared before the AFIP in 2013, the National Appraisal Court awarded him in 2016 an equity of 3,058,871,300 pesos, then equivalent to 205 million dollars.
The doubts about that patrimony have two axes: the
justice maintains that it was acquired as the origin of an illicit
and that it could have operated as a figurehead for Cristina Kirchner.
A fortune that grew in the shadow of business with the State and with the former presidential family, today confiscated.
Accounting for the fortune of the former business partner of the vice president became a task of constant updating during 2016, when his arrest was ordered in the case that came to an end this Wednesday: the Route of Money K. Each time the Court of Appraisal issued a report for the prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan -who took on the task of putting a number on Báez's
assets- new properties were detected for contractor K.
Lázaro Báez's first house, before having 1,400 properties.
Lázaro Báez is a millionaire, and for the justice system - who
prosecuted him for money laundering in five cases and for corruption
in public works in another - the origin of his assets was illegal.
That fortune was now confiscated, when he was convicted in the Route of Money K: he
was accused of laundering 60 million dollars between 2010 and 2013.
The rise curve of their assets is
only explained by their business with the State and with the Kirchner family
.
In 2013, for the Hotesur cause (the hotel company of the Kirchner family) declared assets for 66,851,903 pesos.
Then it
admitted 79 properties
.
A change, with respect to the
440 real estate and the 972 vehicles
and road machines that were attributed later: the total is already 1,412 properties.
How much was the fortune of Báez in 2016, whose only client since 2003 was the State?
According to the Appraisal Court, at that time his assets were worth 3,058,871,300 pesos, then equivalent to 205,134,525 dollars.
The Court certified that
the employer's assets increased between 2004 and 2015 by 12,127%
, and that of Austral Construcciones (its flagship firm) by 45,313%.
Among those more than 1,400 Báez assets there are
land, houses, apartments, garages, hotels, companies, ranches, commercial premises, service stations, warehouses, buildings, airplanes
, vehicles and road machinery.
The properties are distributed in ten towns in Santa Cruz, also in the provinces of Chubut, Buenos Aires, Río Negro, Tierra del Fuego, Chaco and Santiago del Estero, as well as the Federal Capital.
In addition, 972 vehicles and road machinery belonging to Austral Construcciones were counted.
Within the universe of the most expensive properties, is the Bahía hotel located in El Calafate, whose value is 156 million pesos;
the Austral Construcciones property on Route 3 at the entrance to Río Gallegos, valued at 151 million;
a cabin complex on November 28 (Santa Cruz) for 72 million, and the Boca de Río Gallegos Club priced at 49 million.
A lot in Chubut, near the Senguer River, is worth 85 million pesos.
In this list of the most valuable assets are
eight apartment complexes and 170 garages, all in the Federal Capital and
valued at 123,863,000 pesos.
Also, the land that he has in a condominium with Cristina Kirchner's children in El Calafate, valued at 17,400,000 pesos.
The fact is that, for twelve years,
the only client Austral had was the national government.
Currently, the Oral Federal Court 2 (TOF 2) is judging Cristina Kirchner for directing the public road works in favor of the Báez companies, with 51 road contracts for 46,000 million pesos.
Other times.
Cristina Kirchner and Lázaro Báez, together in the Mausoleum of Río Gallegos.
Photo Opi Santa Cruz.
In turn, the court considered that
the funds from the public works in an irregular manner were the "precedent crime"
of the money laundering maneuvers for 60 million dollars that was investigated in "the route of money K", in which file was locked with an embargo of 600 million dollars.
The progress of the cases against him also deprived Báez of some of his assets.
The businessman's two
Lear Jet planes were handed over to the Ministry of Security
, while hundreds of road machines were delivered to the National Highway as a judicial depository.
Austral did not receive more funds for the certification of works, and in June 2018 the civil and commercial judge María José Gigy Trayno
r ruled its bankruptcy.
In this framework, it made the auction of several properties of the company and its owner viable.
24 apartments
located in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Coghlan were auctioned, all of which were sold.
A building located on Panamericana kilometer 49.5, in Pilar, valued at 5.05 million dollars, was also auctioned.
But since there were no bidders, a new auction will be held at a lower value, close to 3.8 million dollars.
The collection cars that Lázaro Báez had hidden in a shed in Río Gallegos, were also all auctioned.
The loss of assets for Báez did not end with these auctions.
The commercial Justice works in one even more symbolic: the Austral Construcciones property in Río Gallegos, on National Route 3, at the entrance to Río Gallegos.
