Notebooks: Federal Chamber overturned Paolo Rocca, CEO of Techint

Paolo Rocca, one of the most powerful businessmen in the country, has received good news. Justice has decided to "depreciate" the CEO of the group Techint in the cause of the notebooks. The Federal Chamber has canceled today the accusation that was signed last November by Judge Claudio Bonadio for unlawful badociation and corruptionand $ 4 billion embargo. Prosecutors Carlos Stornelli and Carlos Rivolo had even tried to take up the challenge by asking for preventive detention, which the prosecutor Germán Moldes did not approve.

However, as revealed at Infobae According to judicial sources, judges Leopoldo Bruglia and Pablo Bertuzzi understood that Rocca's badertion that he might not know the decisions they had made in his company was credible. "Rocca's liability based primarily on its hierarchical positioning within the operation lacks sufficient support to badociate it with this process.", he maintained the resolution to which he agreed Infobae signed is late.

The decision also expedited the referral of the case to an oral trial, but not before addressing some outstanding issues.

The decision of the Federal Chamber was pronounced just a few days ago, the Government, through the Financial Information Section, opened a money laundering investigation on 68 accused, directed by Cristina Kirchner and leading businessmen such as Rocca, Angelo Calcaterra and Marcelo. Mindlin.

As published Infobae As soon as the scandal erupted, the company Techint appeared in the notes of the driver Oscar Centeno. He was first arrested Héctor Zabaletresponsible for delivering black money to Roberto Baratta and said he was sorry, admitting the payments. Subsequently, Luis Betnaza, director of the company, said that he had made payments to the government because he wanted it to intervene with the government of Hugo Chávez for the nationalization of Sidor belonging to the Techint Group .

When Bonadio requested an investigation, Rocca said: "Regarding this imputation, I was not involved in the payments that were referred to me, I did not authorize or get to know them before they were published. in the press weeks. "He gave a detailed description of how the group of Argentine companies operates in different countries and employs thousands of people. He also said that for his responsibilities within the Techint group abroad, he travels a good part of the year, which distances him from the decisions made in Argentina.

"Paolo Rocca would have participated with Luis María Cayetano Betnaza maneuvers investigated in the case, ordered payments to Roberto Baratta"said Bonadio.

Although Rocca badured in his investigation that he did not know the payments that the director of his company Betnaza had paid, already sued in this case, the judge did not believe these statements: "The position he held could not ignore the existence of the payments made by the economic group to which he belonged."

However, the Federal Court has revoked this interpretation. & # 39; "It is certainly not possible to avoid the hierarchy of the mandates within the conglomerate and the possibilities of knowing the status of the various companies that this position allowed him to conceive the direction of their activity and to invest in its development. However, since such extremes are not enough, on their own, to justify a fact-based reprimand", argued the judges.

While Rocca "In a high position in the holding company, the truth is that – unlike other commercial structures – the specialization and diversification of this economic group prevents the inference that the Attorney intervened to meet the requirements of the money. those who alluded to the calculated order that these payments were made"the House said.

And he added: "Neither the Venezuelan-based company nor those based in that country are just branches and the same company, but they are themselves big corporations with their leaders and we expect from our own contractors".

As it was maintained, neither Betnaza nor Zabaleta "were mere dependents who limit their actions to the indiscriminate fulfillment of an order".

This is the third time that the Federal Court has ruled on procedural issues in the case born of the annotations of the driver Osca Centeno who detailed the movements he made for Roberto Baratta, the right arm of the former minister of the Plan, Julio De Vido collect and distribute money from corruption, according to the badumption of the cause.

In the case Cristina Kirchner, De Vido and Baratta were prosecuted for leading the gang while a group of former officials and leading Argentine businessmen were considered part of organization by Judge Bonadio. When the case was brought before the Federal Chamber, the businessmen were excluded from the wrongful badociation, although they were prosecuted for bribery (not for gifts) and that three people have repented in the pyramid of the gang: the former president of the construction chamber Carlos Wagner, the former secretary of public works José López and the financier Ernesto Clarens.

The second intervention of the Federal Chamber took place on December 28 when Judges Bruglia and Bertuzzi examined the case of private secretaries of Cristina Kirchner prosecuted by Bonadio and most of whom were prisoners. They declared the lack of merit for the wrongful badociation.