Slain Argentine prosecutor Nisman accused of misusing state funds
BUENOS AIRES — A top Argentine government official on Wednesday accused a prosecutor who was mysteriously found dead of illegally using state money for a kickback scheme and to wine and dine women.
Cabinet chief Anibal Fernandez told reporters that prosecutor Alberto Nisman illegally used funds dedicated to the prosecutor’s investigation into the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85.
“We are among many scoundrels, including Nisman,” said Fernandez.
Citing the government investigation, Fernandez said Nisman used money to entertain women and to pay an inflated salary to Diego Lagomarsino, a friend and aide to Nisman who acknowledged lending the gun to the prosecutor that was used in his Jan. 18 death.
Fernandez said Lagomarsino, a computer technician, was paid 41,000 pesos ($4,823) a month and gave 20,000 pesos ($2,352) back to Nisman.
Calls placed Wednesday to Lagomarsino’s lawyer, Maximiliano Rusconi, were not immediately returned.
But on Tuesday, Rusconi said that revelations about his client’s financial relationship with the prosecutor would show “behavior by Nisman that at the very least was questionable.”
Without offering details, he said he believed the government would use the information “to damage Nisman’s image.”
Nisman was found dead in his bathroom a few days after accusing President Cristina Fernandez of helping several Iranian officials cover up their alleged role in the Jewish center bombing, the country’s worst terrorist attack.
Fernandez has strongly denied the accusations but her government has struggled to manage the fallout from Nisman’s death.
Nobody has been arrested, and polls show Fernandez’s popularity has taken a hit eight months before presidential elections.
Fernandez, constitutionally prohibited from running for a third term, has yet to designate a top candidate from her party, which currently controls both chambers of Congress.
The president and other government officials have repeatedly suggested Lagomarsino might have been involved in Nisman’s death.
However, Viviana Fein, the lead investigator in the case, has said Lagomarsino is not a suspect.