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Cristina Kirchner's lawyer says that Lázaro Báez was convicted of 'press operations'

2021-02-27T20:52:19.215Z


Carlos Beraldi questioned the judges who handed down 12 years in prison for the businessman. His controversial arguments.


Lucia Salinas

02/27/2021 4:57 PM

  • Clarín.com

  • Politics

Updated 02/27/2021 4:57 PM

After

Oscar Parrilli's

defense of

the conviction against

Lázaro Báez

, the vice president's lawyer, 

Carlos Beraldi

, criticized the conviction against the owner of Austral Construcciones who now faces a twelve-year sentence for having laundered 60 million dollars between 2010 and 2013. Since businessman K was imprisoned in April 2016, no one from the Kirchner family has communicated with the Báez, despite the multiple businesses shared for more than a decade.

"

The thing about Lazaro Baez was the product of the press operations

that were carried out with the magistrates who had to intervene, that seemed unfortunate to me and regarding the verdict it seemed to me that it is a high penalty is excessive."

Beraldi said in radio statements.

The proposal surprised the interior of the Báez family

.

Five years ago, no one close to the Kirchners, not even themselves, contacted Lázaro or his four children.

However, until then, they

were joined by various commercial agreements

that mostly ended in court records.

The court determined that Lázaro Báez and the Kirchner family entered into 28 commercial agreements, including the purchase - sale of properties, a trust to build an apartment complex, a condominium land, expansion of hotels on Austral Construcciones land, cross rentals, purchases from Group companies, hotel operation, renovation of the same, among others.

This extensive history of links investigated for alleged money laundering had a counterpoint in 2015.

Lázaro Báez traveled to Buenos Aire and went to Quinta de Olivos

, Cristina Kirchner had a few months left to finish her presidential term.

At that meeting, businessman K informed him that he was not going to continue managing the Mausoleum that Austral Construcciones built and where the remains of the former President rest.

A few days later, he withdrew all his personnel from the facilities of the fifteen-meter-high building, erected in the Río Gallegos cemetery.

He sent the key with the head of security and put an end to more than a decade of crossed business, something that the justice called "patrimonial confusion."

Justice established another key aspect: while Lázaro maintained all those private businesses with Cristina and Néstor Kirchner, he became the main public works contractor in Santa Cruz: he received 51 road contracts for 46,000 million pesos, being until May 2003, monotax. and having never worked in the construction industry.

For justice, its growth in assets (in 2013 it had 66 million pesos, and by 2016 they valued 1,412 assets for 205 million dollars) could not have happened without its commercial ties with the Kirchners and without the money it received from the State, its sole customer for twelve years.

However, after 2015 the owner of Austral Construcciones did not contact Cristina Kirchner again.

In April 2016 he was imprisoned, and the silence of the political leadership linked to the former president was even more notorious.

But this week that was reversed.

Lázaro Báez along with his four children, was convicted of money laundering.

For all these maneuvers that included a corporate structure based in tax havens and the opening of accounts in Swiss banks, Austral Construcciones was used, the firm that according to the courts received public works contracts from the government of Cristina Kirchner "loaded with irregularities and surcharges of the 65% average ".

After the sentence was known, Oscar Parrilli was the first to criticize the sentence, arguing that it was part of a political persecution.

The answer was not long in coming.

Leandro Báez said that the former head of the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI) spoke "because it is a ruling that says that the preceding crime is the public work of the Cristina Kirchner government."

The message was clear.

This Saturday to that surprise defense, Carlos Beraldi, Cristina, Máximo and Florencia Kirchner's lawyer joined.

He said: "I was surprised by how harsh the penalties were in the Lázaro Báez case. And I think the pressure that was exerted on the judges had an effect."

Before

Clarín's

query

,

from the Báez family they indicated: "Like Parrilli,

They were sent to testify because the bullets pass close to the vice president. "Beraldi defends the Kirchners in two cases for money laundering where the Baez are also accused.

Two of the three judges of the Federal Oral Court 4 (TOF 4) who carried out the trial of Ruta de Dinero K for two and a half years, determined that the crime preceding the money laundering maneuvers, are the road contracts that Báez received .

That is: a portion of the money received with irregularities and alleged surcharges was turned over to money laundering operations.

They also considered tax crimes.

Cristina Kirchner is accused in the Route of the K money, but with a lack of merit dictated by Judge Sebastián Casanello.

The conviction against his former business partner, however, brings to the surface the multiple millionaire businesses that they wove, the public work that Austral Construcciones received, the cornerstone of the laundering maneuvers.  

Source: clarin

All news articles on 2021-02-27

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