Lucia Salinas
03/08/2021 12:32
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 03/08/2021 12:32 PM
For justice, the Kirchner Hotesur SA family company was only
a "screen without real commercial purposes"
during the Néstor and Cristina governments, which was used only as
a means to launder money for 80 million pesos between 2009 and 2013
.
The hotel company owns the Alto Calafate hotel, is going through one of the most critical moments: the firm has been headless for six years, intervened five years ago, with little profitability and under a repeated suggestion of dissolution.
It was the main company of the former presidential family and through which
Lázaro Báez guaranteed income of more than 30 million pesos.
The judicial accusation indicates that Cristina Kirchner and her children, along with Lázaro Báez.
they set up a money laundering structure through the hotel business.
The owner of Grupo Austral was responsible for operating Hotesur SA through his firm
Valle Miter SRL
, created a month before Néstor Kirchner acquired the Alto Calafate hotel for more than five million dollars.
Over the years, Báez also used seven of his companies to
simulate - the accusation indicates - hiring rooms at the Kirchner hotels
, which he never used.
These maneuvers took place between 2009 and 2013 and have a number assigned by the researchers: in that period, contractor K paid the Kirchners
27.5 million pesos for the management of Alto Calafate and more than 11 million for rooms
that he hired and that he never used. .
The Justice concluded that, along with other operations, 80 million pesos were laundered.
Everything happened while Báez received road contracts for 46,000 million pesos, the legality of which has been under trial since 2019. Therefore, the accusation maintains that
both events are connected
.
The investigators maintained that in addition to these hotel operations, there were
more than 15 purchases and sales of land and properties between Báez and the former presidents
.
This liquidity would have allowed them, with the participation of Máximo Kirchner, to
buy the Las Dunas hotel for $ 700,000 and the Alto Calafate for $ 4,900,000.
Interiors of the Alto Calafate hotel.
Photo Francisco Muñoz
This alleged network of money laundering through hotels
was brought to trial three years ago
.
The case for the moment does not advance in the Federal Oral Court 5 (TOF 5) presided over by Judge Daniel Obligado, the same one who reduced Amado Boudou's sentence and granted him house arrest almost a year ago.
But the case
has among its defendants Máximo and Florencia Kirchner,
and that is why it became a concern for the vice president.
In recent years, the Kirchner's main company and the cornerstone of the business with Lázaro Báez has been going through critical moments.
Since 2016 it has been headless.
Its board of directors was not reappointed after the defense of Máximo and Florencia denounced judicial persecution before the General Inspection of Justice (IGJ) and that this prevented the renewal of the company's authorities.
Thus, five years have passed since Hotesur has no people named in their respective positions.
Máximo and Florencia Kirchner were left with the entire Hotesur share package
after the transfer of assets made by the vice president in 2016, but they lost both control of the company and the usufruct of it.
Judge
Julián Ercolini
, who instructed the case, granted a request from the prosecutor
Gerardo Pollicita
and the company intervened.
The monthly reports that are delivered to the TOF 5 have a basic concept.
The auditor wrote in several documents that reflect the existence of "an" economic group "that has designed a corporate engineering and an exploitation mechanism that
is functional to evade judicial precaution
and that also causes state expenses."
Sources of the case expanded the proposal and explained to
Clarín
that
"commercial activity is scarce and not very profitable
.
"
Therefore, in 2018, the auditor suggested dissolving the company and liquidating it.
For now it was not done.
The situation added another problem.
According to the judicial authorities,
the owners of Hotesur did not show "interest in collecting overdue rents."
It turns out that I
dea SA (
owned
by Osvaldo Sanfelice)
was the last company to operate the hotel after the contract with Báez ended.
That firm is also intervened
for maintaining debts with the Kirchners that no one claims.
In addition, they maintained an outdated canon since 2015, causing the business to suffer losses: Sanfelice paid 190,000 pesos plus VAT per month. The Hotesur controller demanded that the figure be raised to 500,000 pesos, but it did not happen. In turn, these comings and goings take place under a constant:
the Alto Calafate hotel never knew full occupancy.
