Lucia Salinas
02/25/2021 17:03
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 02/25/2021 17:03
The crime is the same
.
All were involved in family businesses by their parents, but ended up involved in judicial investigations that led to various prosecutions.
For the children of Lázaro Báez the situation had a turning point this Wednesday: they
all ended up convicted of money laundering, the same accusation that falls on Máximo and Florencia Kirchner
in two files where the main accused is their mother, the vice president.
The degree of responsibility, the level of participation and decision-making in the investigated firms opens a parallel between the two cases.
When the case known as the Ruta del Dinero K began in 2013, everything seemed to focus on Lázaro Báez.
As the investigation progressed, the accusations reached her four children: Luciana, Martín, Melina and Leandro.
This week, the Justice determined that all of
them participated, with different degrees of responsibility,
in the structure that was dedicated to laundering more than 55 million dollars between 2010 and 2013.
For the members of the Oral Federal Court 4 (TOF 4),
it was not a sufficient explanation that the heirs of Báez said that they did not know about his father's business
, that they had not participated in decision-making, that they had not signed the documentation that implied.
The judges condemned them with various roles, and for that reason they were given differentiated penalties, as participants in the movements of funds that allowed the laundering of millionaire figures.
Lázaro's four children were linked to the Austral Group: they had from an authorizing signature to managerial positions, or were on the payroll of employees.
They are also
listed as beneficiaries of bank accounts opened in Switzerland
that were used to triangulate money from
offshore
companies
.
The role of Austral Construcciones in a criminal structure linked to the State was not limited to the maneuvers investigated in the Money Route K. For the same purposes - to simulate commercial operations to put money of illicit origin into circulation - justice implicated the construction company in the case
Los Sauces
(real estate of the Kirchner family) and Hotesur (hotel firm of the Kirchners).
Los Sauces was responsible for constructing two building complexes that were later rented by the same firm.
It guaranteed income to former presidents for more than 12 million pesos.
Regarding Hotesur,
the Austral Group rented rooms that it never used for more than 14 million pesos.
In these two files, Máximo and Florencia Kirchner are being processed for money laundering, with a role similar to that occupied by the sons of Lázaro Báez in the case of Ruta del Dinero K.
Designated as
"bosses" and part of "a band" dedicated to "receiving money as payment or return of the concession" of public works
and gaming concessions, the late judge Claudio Bonadio considered that Máximo and Florencia Kirchner were responsible for "imparting the directives of this criminal organization ”in order to receive“ illegitimate money in order to make it appear lawful. ”According to the justice,
that money was provided by Lázaro Báez.
In this regard, the Kirchner brothers -with arguments similar to those used by the Baez-, considered that
it was all "a mere judicial setup to achieve high media impact."
An idea similar to that put forward by his mother, who said that everything sought to "cause a stir in public opinion"
The accusation against the national deputy and head of La Cámpora maintains that he was responsible "for signing, in some cases, the real estate rental contracts, and for depositing in the accounts of the Banco de Santa Cruz and the Banco de la Nación Argentina,
the payments received from the companies "of Lázaro Báez and Cristóbal López
(main tenants of Los Sauces SA), and of carrying out
million-dollar operations" without the necessary documentary support or justification
.
Your signature appears on all papers.
In his brief, Máximo Kirchner pointed out that all the operations carried out by him "were in compliance with the duties of his position" and that therefore they
were "legitimate".
The chamber confirmed the crimes attributed
and the case is elevated to oral trial.
Regarding Florencia Kirchner, it was noted that after the death of her father and as a member of the board of directors and employee of that firm - she was appointed manager of Los Sauces SA - she
received 3.7 million pesos in her account from Banco Galicia from the estate
and the succession of Néstor Carlos Kirchner.
She was also appointed as
"head" of the company with "decision-making power" in the company.
The judge considered that he had a "preponderant character in the decisions of the company, which he joined after the death of Néstor Carlos Kirchner."
The defense reply indicated that with regard to the daughter of the former President, "criteria typical of the Middle Ages were retaken, arguing that she
should be responsible for alleged crimes committed by her deceased father upon inheriting him
" and that everything responded to
a "campaign of persecution and harassment that he has been suffering with his family "
.
The same thing that the children of businessman K said in his defense.
It went wrong for them.