Lucia Salinas
03/04/2021 10:42
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 03/04/2021 10:42
President Alberto Fernández announced that he is going to sue Mauricio Macri for the country's indebtedness.
Two days later, the Argentine Mail case, the one that most worries the former president, had a significant advance in civil and commercial justice.
The judge in charge of the creditors' preventive bankruptcy gave rise to a claim
from the Treasury Attorney, Carlos Zannini,
who requested that the rescue process be reactivated.
If the Post itself fails, it could go bankrupt.
From the Macri family company, they maintain that this is "the government's objective."
After the scandal that broke out more than three years ago, when the prosecutor Gabriela Boquín denounced that the government headed by Mauricio Macri was about to accept a proposal to pay the debt of the Correo Argentino company with the State that supposedly implied a millionaire loss For the public coffers, in July of last year the firm of the Macri family presented another payment proposal before the Commercial Justice, which was rejected by the State as one of the creditors.
That decision was appealed by the lawyers of the Post Office, but the Treasury Attorney Carlos Zannini asked that the case not be treated.
From the company they accuse him of wanting to lead them to bankruptcy
and this past Wednesday the judge in charge of the contest, Marta Cirulli, decided to reactivate the salvage process that, due to proposals from the Mail's lawyers, had been suspended for several months.
Thus, a proposal that the company had made in 2019, which consisted of
the cash deposit of 296 million pesos
, was set aside
, 30 days after the agreement was approved.
In addition, it offered an update of the interest on the debt, but linked to the payment by the State of some of the lawsuits filed by the Post for the confiscation of the firm in 2003 by Néstor Kirchner.
When a new offer was made, the Treasury Procurator - the body responsible for endorsing the agreement or not - decided to reject it and request the intervention that was finally ordered by commercial judge Marta Cirulli.
At the request of Zannini, during the pandemic,
the extraordinary judicial fair was lifted and the auditor took office.
Prior to that, the rescue process had already begun at the request of the prosecutor Bouquín.
Then, harshly, he argued that “after more than 15 years in which the cramdown procedure should have been channeled - as ordered by the Chamber on October 27, 2004 - we find ourselves in front of a scenario in which during the long period of time after that, the bankrupt perpetrated serious acts -which I have denounced- linked to the emptying of the company or they were carried out in violation of the provisions "of the Bankruptcy Law.
Following Zannini's request for the bankruptcy process to be reactivated, the magistrate set the date March 29 to determine the future of the firm AND the next April 7 and 8 for the Post and the interested parties to accompany the corresponding conformities for approve a proposal.
"This term could be suspended in case the resources that have been raised prosper," they indicated from the signing that they will insist with their proposals.
The possibility of avoiding bankruptcy is that there is an interest in saving the company with an economic offer,
the Socma group can even participate through other companies.
Then, they will have to formulate the pertinent proposals and see if they reach an agreement with all the verified borrowers in the process.
If the process fails, it would leave the firm on the brink of bankruptcy
.
The defense of the company of the Macri family objected.
"In a remarkably short period of time, the judge did not assess, nor take into account the challenges to the valuation of Correo's stock package made by SOCMA and others interested in acquiring the stock package. Surprisingly, she did not order a notification for the evaluation study to provide explanations how it would have corresponded in a valuation of such complexity. Obviously the resolution will be appealed, "said the defense of the Post.
In the same vein, they insist that the Procuratorate "promotes bankruptcy for a political issue and to avoid paying the assets of CASA that it appropriated and continues to use without paying any consideration. The value of the appropriate assets is widely higher than the debt for the Canon verified ".
They claim about 300 million dollars that were admitted by the State itself when it took over the assets of the Post.
History of a complex cause
When Correo Argentino was privatized in 1997, the concession remained for 30 years in the hands of a consortium made up of Socma (Sociedad de la Familia Macri, 67%) and minority partners.
But the private mail did not pay the canon, and the debt with the State grew until, in 2001, it reached 296 million pesos and entered bankruptcy.
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 plus interest for updating.
Meanwhile, in those years, the former owners of the Post Office had been increasing their participation in the controlling company, and presented three main claims against the State for 1,700 million pesos, another 500 million pesos and 120 million dollars, plus interest. to offset 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, which was never approved, according to which the Macri Group had to pay 300 million pesos in 15 years, with an interest rate of 7%.
Prosecutor Boquín rejected that proposal as "ruinous, abusive" and whose "irregular acceptance" seriously harmed the patrimony of the national State.
The prosecutor's argument argued that such an agreement would imply a 98.2% cut in favor of the firm controlled by the president's family, and a multimillion-dollar loss for the State.
He calculated the loss for the State at more than 4,000 million pesos, which would cause the "cancellation of the debt" that implied the acceptance of the agreement with the former owners of the Post Office, an amount that would reach a loss of 70,000 million in the year 2033. However, bankruptcy lawyer Daniel Vitolo explained that the prosecutor's calculation was wrong because it was a bankrupt company.
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