Seven soldiers must go to court for a difference of two million dollars

Seven soldiers were summoned to investigate the embezzlement of public funds. They are currently under investigation for the alleged hijacking of nearly two million dollars from military coffers to personal bank accounts during the efforts of Defense Ministers Arturo Puricelli and Agustín Rossi.

Two senior commanders of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (EMCO) intelligence chief's command will also have to explain the maneuver that led to misappropriation of funds for the benefit of the treasury. The embezzlement, which was examined by Federal Judge Sebastian Ramos, took place in 2012 and 2013, with the reserved expenses being managed by the intelligence department of the Chiefs of Staff, which were intended for the functioning of the Military Attached Offices in Australia, Russia and South Korea. The money was sent by bank transfer to each of the agencies that were the subject of the survey, but a high percentage of these resources were found in personal accounts open to the public. 39, a foreigner by different members of the armed forces. A maneuver that began, coincidentally, with the exchange rate arranged by the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

It is for this reason that the Federal Justice has begun to collect the first statements of investigation, between those who then appear the boss and the deputy chief of intelligence headquarters: General Jose Eduardo Demaría and Commodore Luis Patoco.

Both were responsible for the military attache and had been promoted to the military structure because of their close ties with the lieutenant-general of the army, Cesar Milani, currently imprisoned for crimes against the army. ;humanity.

The judge also ordered that an investigation be conducted on low-ranking military personnel who managed EMCO's resources abroad. NCO Claudio Velardez, auxiliary of the Australian attache; Colonel Oscar Vuisso, military attache in Russia; Alejandro Pacheco, deputy to the Russian attache, and Sergeant Sergio Trombino Ghivareli, auxiliary to the South Korean attache. The four men in uniform are being investigated for participating directly or indirectly in the multi-million dollar gap.

Finally, the magistrate also asked to declare the head of the budget division of the head of intelligence, Jorge Sícaro. The soldier received seven bank transfers of a total amount of $ 339,439 on his personal savings account in the Commonwealth of Australia. The deposits came from the official account of the military attaché of South Korea and were therefore included in an accounting report prepared by Federal Judge Sebastian Ramos.

Until 2016, the Argentine Republic had defense attaché offices in thirteen countries: Germany, Canada, Australia, South Korea, Spain, France, India, Israel, Japan, Italy, United Kingdom, Russia and Venezuela. Attachments, consisting of Army, Navy and Air Force soldiers, report directly to the Chiefs of Staff Intelligence Headquarters. And each seat is allocated an annual budget in dollars that was deposited the first five days of each month. In recent weeks,

the Ministry of Defense,

Oscar Cordovan Oscar Aguad ordered to close the military attachment of Australia and to open a new headquarters in China. As they explained to
THE NATION from the ministry, "the decision has nothing to do with fraud in the management of budgets, but with the need to open a new base in a country with which there is a strong commercial link".

The first to denounce the flight of millions of dollars was Captain Carlos Mighera. The uniforms arrived in Canberra the last week of December 2013 to order the Australian attache. As soon as it was installed, it motorized an accounting audit of expenses and arrears. He discovered that NCO Claudio Velardez had made nine bank transfers in the amount of $ 405,007 to the official account of the Australian attaché on his personal savings account at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Australia, Sydney. Transactions began in May 2012 and ended in 2013.

At that time, the control of the exchange rate imposed by Cristina Kirchner imposed restrictions on access to the American currency and each dollar varied between 4 and 5 Argentine pesos. In accordance with the regulations in force, the army responsible for aggregates is obliged to send monthly receipts and summaries of the official accounts abroad to support the expenses. It is suspected that the invoices were invented, the duplicate files and even the vouchers were falsified in order to fatten the budgets of each of the suspicious sites. Only Australia, which had an annual budget of $ 240,000 for 2012 and 2013, received a total of $ 640,000 without any order to justify it. In South Korea, according to the report of the internal auditor of the General Staff, operating expenses increased by 300% compared to the previous year.