Argentina’s former ambassador to Washington, Cecilia Nahón, rejects fraud accusations
Argentina’s former ambassador to the United States, Cecilia Nahón, has rejected accusations she committed fraud, saying an indictment against her is part of a campaign of “political persecution” against former officials of the Cristina Fernández de Kirchner administration.
A federal court in Buenos Aires City on Tuesday indicted the former ambassador, who served from 2012 to 2015, during Fernández de Kirchner’s presidency, for alleged fraud committed during her time at the Embassy in Washington. Prosecutors allege that she pressured a former diplomatic official to take money from unworked overtime and hired a nanny using public money.
“The case stemming from a malicious complaint made by #GracielaNoResponde [“Graciela Does Not Answer”] Ocaña, in which she falsely accuses me of the irregular diversion of funds in the employment of personnel at the Foreign Ministry and the Argentine Embassy in Washington between 2011 and 2015 has no basis,” Nahón tweeted.
The former ambassador argued that a court had previously dismissed the complaint against her related to the hiring a nanny and that accusations concerning the payment of unworked overtime “was out of my control in a national secretariat with 500 employees.”
Nahón also took the opportunity to attack Graciela Ocaña, who made the complaint, for the lawmaker’s apparent silence over allegations that recently emerged alleging that the Cambiemos (Let’s Change) congressional coalition falsified donation receipts using the names and details of low-income welfare recipients, during its 2017 mid-term election campaign in Buenos Aires province. Ocaña’s campaign allegedly benefitting from such manoeuvres.
Nahón also took the opportunity to attack Graciela Ocaña, who made the complaint, for the lawmaker’s apparent silence over allegations that recently emerged alleging that the Cambiemos (Let’s Change) congressional coalition falsified donation receipts using the names and details of low-income welfare recipients, during its 2017 mid-term election campaign in Buenos Aires province. Ocaña’s campaign allegedly benefitting from such manoeuvres.
Ocaña “has not offered society any explanation about the serious accusations linked to the financing of her electoral campaign,” Nahón charged.
She said Ocaña was part of a government that is carrying out a campaign “political persecution against officials from the former government” of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.