The Ministry of Justice commanded by
Martín Soria
during the administration of
Alberto Fernández
was also involved in the irregular maneuver with the contracting of insurance.
According to official documents accessed by
Clarín
, on May 23, 2022, former Minister K authorized the contracting, with a direct order, of an ART insurance service for all personnel of the Federal Penitentiary Service (SPF).
The company that obtained the contract was Provincia ART and as confirmed by this medium based on official sources - and who were aware of the negotiation - the broker who acted as intermediary was Héctor Martínez Sosa, husband of María Cantero, the secretary of the former president. Alberto Fernandez.
The name of Martínez Sosa was proposed by Soria's management.
The hiring of Provincia ART was published in the Official Gazette
in May 2022 under the label of Administrative Decision 525/2022 and bears the signature of the former Minister of Justice.
The benefited area, the Federal Penitentiary Service, was in charge at that time of María Garrigós de Rébori, former judge and member of the Legitimate Justice group that brings together magistrates, prosecutors and lawyers linked to Kirchnerism.
Juan Martín Mena, the former vice justice close to Cristina Kirchner, also had strong influence in that area.
Advertising poster on Lugones Avenue for the broker Hector Martínez Sosa.
Photo Juano Tesone.
The contract to insure all Penitentiary Service employees was for two years with the option to extend it for another year.
And according to the documents accessed by Clarín, it cost $839,864,426.
Video
The former president defended himself against the accusations of corruption and said that he has "the peace of mind" of not having committed "any improper act."
Today it should remain in force, but after the arrival of Javier Milei to the Government and when the Federal Penitentiary Service passed into the orbit of the Ministry of Security,
Patricia Bullrich canceled the contract with the broker friend of the former president.
Today the relationship between the Penitentiary Service and the ART Province was established directly.
The business was great for Martínez Sosa
, who at that point had already been left with the intermediation of several public organizations in the contracting of insurance.
He kept a percentage close to 15% of commissions for being an intermediary in a business that did not need a broker.
Until before Martínez Sosa appeared in this new business, the SPF had a self-insurance system that was provided by the social work that covered the employees of that organization.
Social work was subsidized by the national State to cover the health and ART requirements of personnel working in federal prisons.
That is why the entry of Martínez Sosa as an intermediary seemed like a business more tailored to him than to the interests of the State and the employees of the SPF.
Video
The UP representative defended the former president after the complaint against him.
Today Martínez Sosa seeks to get rid of the alleged favors that the former president would have given him so that he can stay with the intermediation business in official organizations.
In a note he sent to the insurance market, he said that he "as a company never asked the former president to intervene in any of our businesses." But he admitted that he is united by a friendship and that he had many encounters with Fernandez.
As Clarín published, Martínez Sosa accumulates several incomes to the Quinta de Olivos during the former president's administration, even during the quarantine when it was prohibited.
On the night of May 11, 2020, he spent almost an hour at the presidential residence, and there is also an entry three days later, on May 14.
That night, Martínez Sosa arrived at the meeting with Fernández accompanied by María Cantero, his wife and private secretary of the then President.
That same year, on January 8, he entered Olivos at 9:36 p.m. and left the next day at 1:20 a.m.
The former president and his friend Martínez Sosa were denounced in court for dark maneuvers with insurance.
They have already been charged by Judge Julián Ercolini who is handling the case.
Despite the evidence, the former president maintains that he is innocent.
From Mexico, where he left when the scandal broke, he assured that he did not commit "any improper act."
Justice must investigate if he is right.