The Federal Chamber has calmed the situation of two former collaborators of Cristina Kirchner prosecuted for trout bills

By two votes to one, the Federal Chamber decided to revoke the proceedings against former officials of the Ceremonial Zone of the Government of Cristina Kirchner, investigated by embezzlement and falsification of documents. In this case, it has been shown that The Argentine state has paid out more than two million dollars thanks to “trout” bills daily allowances and hotels presented as part of presidential tours in different parts of the world. However, a judgment called into question these invoices which served as proof: by the majority, it was affirmed that it was simple photocopies, obtained by the management of Mauricio Macri, collected by administrative means or not expressly requested by a judge. And so they returned to order the “lack of merit” of those involved, as established in the decision to which he consented. GlobeLiveMedia.

The cause began in 2016, when Cambiemos started running. Los acusaban de sobreprecios en hoteles y viáticos de giras oficiales de Cristina Kirchner between 2013 y 2015. Fue investigated in el expediente judicial en el sumario administrativo that ordenó la Secretaría Legal y Técnica de Presidencia de la Nación, la Oficina Anticorrupción y la Sindicatura General de the nation. At that time, the current Minister of the Interior was also denounced Eduardo “Waldo” de Pedro and about twenty officials of the protocol and ceremonial domain of the Presidency of the Nation.

As revealed GlobeLiveMedia last January, after twists and turns, the federal judge Daniel Rafecasprovisionally in charge of the case, prosecuted Nelson Alberto Periotti (m) who was around Presidency Ceremony between 2013 and 2015 and today works as CEO of Ceremonial, Protocol and Audiences of the Senate of the Nationas well as the former president (his father, of the same name, was one of the convicts along with Cristina Kirchner in the recent trial for road, where the Federal Oral Tribunal 2 sentenced him to ten years in prison). He also continued Gustavo Oscar Navarro, who worked as an administrative employee of the permanent plant of the General Directorate of Ceremonial of the Presidency of the Nation until the end of 2021, management Alberto Fernandez, would have been removed from this area. The last of the defendants was a ceremonial area official, Atilio Lopezas an accomplice to the maneuver.

You may be interested: Two former Cristina Kirchner officials have been sued for embezzling more than $2 million in travel expenses on presidential tours

However, the defendants appealed. The defense of Periotti and Navarro assured that it could not be argued that their clients had prepared apocryphal invoices or that they knew they were “trouts”. But he also complained because “the proof of imputation consists of simple photocopies of invoices and exchanges of emails obtained within the framework of an administrative investigation not respecting the procedures”. In the opinion of the defence, the court “limited itself to integrating emails and files of dubious origin to the detriment of the rights of the assisted”.

The case was considered by Chamber II of the Federal Chamber. The judge Martin Irurzunthe first to vote, came out in support of the prosecution and left the former officials at the gates of an oral trial.

“Keep in mind that throughout this instruction it has been possible to determine that there was an illegal maneuver by which, and under cover of operating expenses related to the political representation abroad of the highest authorities of the National Executive – called “possible expenses” -, public funds were stolen by the presentation of apocryphal bills. This criminal activity required a series of knowledge and a particular position within the administration to carry out the criminal scheme. The task, as it appears from the elements evaluated in the decision-making, was in the hands of the senior officials of the region -Periotti and Navarro, director and deputy director of the General Directorate of Ceremonial- and had the necessary collaboration of one of their employees, Lopez,” Irurzun said.

According to Irurzun, “Periotti and Navarro -who attended the official missions in question, since the latter was part of the advance and rear groups in many cases-, had full knowledge of the disbursements that had to be made at destination and of the amounts reflected in the invoices issued by the various service providers, and then have the information necessary to replace them with fictitious receipts reflecting higher costs for the delegation. This indicative scenario is not affected by the existence of other possible perpetrators” –

After arguing that “the facts and evidence put them at the center of the events that are the subject of this summary”, Irurzun asserted that “the circumstances presented so far constitute an index which prevents us from giving credit to the defendant’s version that they did not know that the invoices returned were apocryphal, nor had the possibility of knowing it, trying to minimize the relevance of the fact that their signatures appear on both the invoices and the application forms. And he added that “the picture is even clearer if we focus on the content of the irregularities found”.

Just an example: the day the entourage left for New York, they had the funds for possible expenses. “The data is not less if we take into account that in the transport sector an invoice was presented for 88,688 USD, while the real amounted to the equivalent of 8,307 USD″.

but the judge Roberto Boico raised another criterion: he collected the arguments of the defense on the validity of the invoices. “The validity of the evidence provided by agencies belonging to the national executive branch in 2016 is in question. (Presidency of the Nation, General Syndicate of the Nation, Anti-Corruption Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Worship, etc.). Thus, the main criticisms of the defense are based on the failure to respect the normative postulates that govern the processes of international cooperation in criminal matters,” he said.

The original invoices were obtained in three ways: emails sent by the Internal Audit staff of the Presidency of the Nation under Macri’s direction, notes via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or emails or so-called “completed by the judicial staff”. “The only authority empowered by law to collect information on criminal cases abroad is the judge in charge of the case. However, the invoices allegedly provided by the foreign suppliers were obtained through alternative means to the legal procedure established by Law 24767. The main piece is in crisis,” he said.

Boyco also pointed to the criminal figure used and said there was no evidence that those involved “fabricated, forged or inserted” the trout bills. He also wondered if “the digital media available to corroborate the counterfeiting criminal device” had not been used?

In the light of the above developments, the erroneous basis for the co-authorship of the defendants here. Now, was the Direction du Ceremonial the area responsible for ensuring the return of funds available for overseas travel? “, he underlined.

“The shortcomings pointed out throughout this pronouncement, characterized – as we have pointed out – by a deficient and incomplete judicial reconstruction of past events, are directly reflected in the inconsistency of the argument of the decision maker whose logic, sometimes speculative , for the conjectural moments, shows the abandonment of the waiting criterion adopted -only for some- in the year 2020 with a similar factual scenario and the resignation of the development of the necessary -and waiting pedagogical task aimed at recreating as reliably as possible this happened,” he said.

When breaking the tie, the judge edward farah decided to adhere to Boyco’s position. “The evidence gathered so far do not allow, even with the degree of probability that this procedural step requires, to attribute criminal responsibility to the accused“, said.

“Beyond the shortcomings pointed out by my opinionated colleague as to the way in which the degree of participation of the defendants was founded, I understand that Doubts linger over cash handling in cash and physical invoices issued by the various suppliers abroad, since the attribution of such behavior to those treated here has been based on the hierarchical position of Periotti and Navarro in the ceremonial area”, he said. he declares. And to add: “despite the time that has elapsed since the start of the proceedings, some of the information which would give the anchor corresponding to the criminal hypothesis subject of these proceedings has not yet been collected”.

Continue reading: