Cuadernos case: Techint executives fired for paying money to former Kirchner officials

The executives of the Techint company implicated in the Cuadernos case were dismissed from their functions on Tuesday by the judge Julien ErcolinI, who subrogates the tribunal that belonged to the deceased Claudio Bonadio. From the management of Techint, one of the country’s leading companies, he was admitted to delivering money while managing Nestor kirchner to resolve a complex situation of a subsidiary of this company in Venezuela.

Three days after the outbreak of the Cuadernos affair, Infobae revealed that Techint company appeared in the driver’s notes Oscar Centeno. He was first arrested Hector Zabaleta, responsible for delivering black money to Roberto Baratta, who was undersecretary of the Ministry of Planning which headed Julio from Vido. Zabaleta declared himself repentant, admitting the payments. Then declared Luis Betnaza, director of the company, who admitted to making payments to former Plan officials because they wanted the Kirchner administration to intercede in 2008 with the government of Hugo chavez Due to the expropriation that was to take place in Venezuela of the company SIDOR, it belonged to the Techint Group.

Bonadio sued after establishing that Techint executives had meetings with Claudio Uberti, Julio De Vido, José Maria Olazagasti and Baratta so that they “intercede to obtain the collection of the company, because it was worth a lot”. In this context, Bonadio said, Argentinian officials “began to ask for money from the managers of the company in order to be able to deal with the government of Venezuela.” And so he sued former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and these former officials, as well as Betnaza. Uberti had confirmed the payment of bribes. Paolo Rocca, CEO of Techint, was also sued.

The first judge who replaced Bonadio after his death, Marcelo Martinez De Giorgi , dictated a lack of merit to the current vice-president and to De Vido, his former secretary Olazagasti, Baratta, Uberti and Betnaza. The Federal Chamber dictated the lack of merit to Rocca. It is the Chamber of Cassation in its intervention which traced the dictation of lack of merit.

In his resolution today, Ercolini fired Techint executives because the payments were “humanitarian” justified because of what was going on at his factory in Venezuela.

For Ercolini the situation of Baratta, appointed as collector of the Ministry of Planning and for this reason he was prosecuted for having received gifts. “The absence of responsibility in the events of the businessmen to whom the delivery of the money was attributed – which came from the request of the official in an emergency situation – does not prevent the official from receiving money. ‘public money involved, it turns out to be conduct that is subsumed directly under the criminal type analyzed,’ said the judge in the resolution to which he consented Infobae.

Ercolini explained that: “In the present case, it would be proven that the money transfers were made to Roberto Baratta at the time when he was exercising his functions at the Ministry of Federal Planning, Public Investment and National Services. , and that there is no record of some of this money being donated for legal purposes. Por el contrario, no se habría demostrado que Baratta haya recibido ese dinero con el fin de hacer, dejar de hacer o retardar, algo relativo a sus funciones, siendo que no tenía injerencia alguna en los sucesos acontecidos con la firma SIDOR in the República Bolivariana from Venezuela. ”The payments were eight and the estimated figure was between 15 and 20 million pesos at the time.

The judge pointed out that “Betnaza and Zabaleta – each with the role they had in the alleged act – were expropriated from the SIDOR steelworks which was located in Venezuela, and that according to what was considered to be proven, this were not they who threatened and they frightened their dependents – a situation of danger created. In fact, the resolution of the conflict would not have been in their hands either. Indeed, it can be observed that s’ acting in a manifestly unmanageable situation for the company which was located in another State, it is even logical that the authorities of our country have resorted to requesting their intervention so that their compatriots can return peacefully. extremely serious and distressing harm which has caused the imminence of a concrete danger which would have compelled them to violate the law – by making an undue payment to a public official in response to a request for assistance ”.

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