’Corruption notebooks’ put heat on Argentina’s Kirchners
BUENOS AIRES: A web of graft allegations stemming from the period former presidents Cristina Kirchner and her husband Nestor ruled Argentina became even stickier this week when “corruption notebooks” detailing secretive cash deliveries came to light.
Sixteen former government officials and business people have been arrested on criminal association charges in what prosecutors said was a suspected bribery operation totalling US$160mil (RM652mil).
More arrests have not been ruled out.
The notebooks were kept by Oscar Centeno, a driver who worked for a public works official.
In them, he meticulously recorded the amounts of cash paid, where briefcases of money were picked up and delivered to in Buenos Aires, how much the briefcases weighed, and information suggesting the payoffs were to secure public works contracts.
The Kirchners’ residence in Buenos Aires and the presidential palace and residence they inhabited figured among the addresses listed.
The contents of eight notebooks were divulged to the public this week by the newspaper La Nacion, which received them from an uni- dentified source months ago and which eventually turned copies of the pages over to prosecutors.
On Friday, a special financial investigations unit said it was examining US$65mil (RM265mil) in Miami investments in the United States made by Nestor’s late private secretary to see if there were links with the payments detailed in the notebooks.
The entries by Centeno date from 2003 to 2015, covering the leftwing presidencies of Nestor, who died of a heart attack in 2010, and his wife and successor Cristina, who was in office from 2007.
Cristina, now a senator and a critic of current conservative President Mauricio Macri, is already fighting a slew of corruption accusations. The “corruption notebooks” will add to the judicial scrutiny she is facing.
On Aug 13, Cristina is due to appear before the judge running the inquiry into the notebooks case.
As a senator, she is immune from arrest.
But she can still be put on trial if sufficient evidence exists for prosecution, and sentenced if found guilty.
The judge has asked the senate to lift her immunity so her home and office can be searched.