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Cristina Kirchner wins a court battle: money laundering case linked to businessman Báez dismissed

2023-06-05T18:22:18.527Z

Highlights: The judge rules in his favor for the lack of accusers, after the prosecutor did not find evidence of the former president in the laundering operations for which Lázaro Báez was convicted. This is a different case from that of Vialidad, for which Kirchner was convicted in December and sentenced to six years in prison for defrauding the State. The magistrate rejected the request made by the civil association Bases Republicanas to be a plaintiff in the case because he considered that it is not a "particularly offended" party.


The judge rules in his favor for the lack of accusers, after the prosecutor did not find evidence of the participation of the former president in the laundering operations for which Báez was convicted


Former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner won a court battle. This Monday she was dismissed in the so-called 'K Money Route' focused on the money laundering maneuvers for which the businessman Lázaro Báez was sentenced in 2021 to twelve years in prison. This is a different case from that of Vialidad, for which Kirchner was convicted in December and sentenced to six years in prison for defrauding the State. In this case, Judge Sebastián Casanello ruled in favor of the current vice president because of the lack of accusers. Days ago, the prosecutor of the case had indicated that despite the undeniable relationship between Kirchner and Báez, the participation of the leader in the money laundering operations investigated for ten years could not be proven.

Following the prosecutor's ruling, both the Financial Information Unit and the Argentine Treasury (Afip) also requested that the vice president be dismissed, which meant the withdrawal of all the plaintiffs.

The magistrate rejected the request made by the civil association Bases Republicanas to be a plaintiff in the case because he considered that it is not a "particularly offended" party and that its presentation did not meet the formal requirements or those of "opportunity". Casanello stressed that, after ten years of investigation, the association presented the request on Friday with a "specific objective": that the case not be closed.

In 2021, Casanello found Báez guilty of laundering assets worth 60 million dollars between 2010 and 2013, when his name was among the state contractors preferred by Kirchnerism. Báez was then the owner of Austral Construcción, a company based in Santa Cruz, the province that was a political bastion of Kirchnerism, which made him a millionaire thanks to juicy state contracts. A higher court confirmed Baez's guilt but reduced the sentence to ten years.

Casanello had ruled at that time the lack of merit against Kirchner, but prosecutor Guillermo Marijuán asked for a series of evidentiary measures. After obtaining negative results, Marijuán requested the dismissal of Cristina Kirchner last week. The prosecutor maintains that the crime perpetrated by Báez existed, but stresses that there is no evidence that the vice president was a co-author or had participation "in that concrete and specific money laundering maneuver."

Despite the dismissal of this case, there are others open against the vice president. The most advanced is known as Vialidad, for which Kirchner was sentenced to six years in prison and life disqualification from holding public office for fraud to the State. In the ruling, which has since been appealed, the court said it had found certainties of "an extraordinary fraudulent maneuver that harmed the pecuniary interests of the national public administration." According to prosecutor Diego Luciani, the total defrauded to the state coffers amounted to 1,000 million dollars through irregularities in the awarding of 51 road works in the province of Santa Cruz. The other major case against the former president is known as "Notebooks of corruption", based on the notebooks of Oscar Centeno, the former driver of Roberto Baratta, who was an official of the Ministry of Federal Planning during Kirchnerism. Kirchner is being prosecuted as the head of an illicit association in that case.

The former Argentine president considers herself the victim of judicial persecution instigated by political opponents and maintains a harsh verbal confrontation with justice, especially with the members of the Supreme Court. Less than a week ago, he again directed his darts against the Prosecutor's Office that ruled out the political motive in the assassination attempt he suffered and decided to close the investigation without going beyond the three material authors. "They want me imprisoned or dead," he said in a letter posted on social media.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-06-05

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