Former Argentine President Cristina Kirchner was indicted by a judge on Tuesday over corruption allegations tied to public works projects during her administration.
Judge Julián Ercolini’s resolution, published by Argentina’s judiciary, approved trying Mrs. Kirchner for the alleged illicit association and administrative fraud in a case connected to infrastructure projects awarded to the company Austral Construcciones, owned by a close associate.The resolution also ordered the embargo of about $640 million in Mrs. Kirchner’s assets.
The judge also indicted former planning minister Julio de Vido, former public works secretary Jose Lopez and Lazaro Báez, a construction businessman who owns Austral.
Former Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was indicted on Friday for defrauding the state out of an alleged $5.2billion.
Federal judge Claudio Bonadio said a scheme to inflate the Argentine peso by selling the central bank's US dollars below market value would not have been possible without Fernandez's approval.
Bonadio is investigating whether the move, enacted in the last few months of her second term, was a deliberate attempt to sabotage her successor, the Argentina Independent reported.
The judge said the state lost more than $5billion, allowing buyers to make big profits on the transactions. The sales also created a sharp drop in Central Bank reserves.The indictment means prosecutors can move forward and put Fernandez on trial, who could face five to 20 years in prison if she is found guilty.
Bonadio will continue the investigation with a possibility the case could be dismissed, legal experts told the NY Times, while Fernandez can also appeal the ruling.
The former president, her economy minister Axel Kicillof, former central bank chief Alejandro Vanoli, and 12 others were charged with 'unfaithful administration to the detriment of public administration,' according to court papers.
The judge also ordered a $15million embargo on each of their assets, the Independent reported.
The accusation is that the central bank took billions of dollars worth of money-losing positions in the futures market ahead of a widely expected devaluation of the Argentine peso.
The transactions referred to in the case involved $5 billion to $17 billion, according to court papers published by Argentina's Judicial Information Center (CIJ). 'It's impossible to believe that a financial operation of this size ... could have been carried out without the approval of the highest executive level of the national government,' the ruling said.
But Fernandez has denied any wrongdoing and says she is the victim of political persecution, since the criminal complaints were filed by officials in her successor Mauricio Macri's coalition.
The defendants have placed the blame squarely on Macri's government, and an investigation has been launched against current deputy cabinet chief Mario Quintana, among others, the Argentina Independent reported.
Macri won the presidency on a platform of ditching currency controls that he said were strangling the economy.
Since lifting the controls in mid-December the peso has weakened by about 30 percent to 14.1575 per U.S. dollar.
Inflation reached 6.5 percent in April, the biggest monthly price jump since Argentina's worst economic crisis 14 years ago, the Buenos Aires statistics agency reported Thursday. Fernandez, who has been dogged by corruption allegations during her eight-year presidency, accused the Macri government of political persecution after testifying in court about the central bank's dollar-buying operations.
Since leaving office in December at the end of her second term, she has also been included in investigations involving allegations of money laundering and possible illegal enrichment.
Fernandez is revered by millions for the generous welfare programs she offered while in office and reviled by others for economic policies such as nationalizing businesses and placing heavy-handed controls on the economy.
The indictment of Fernandez came a day after the president of neighboring Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, was suspended from office by the Senate while she is tried on charges of breaking budget rules.
