Former Argentine President Alberto Fernandez As reported by the local press and the judge in the case, he was accused this Thursday of the alleged embezzlement of funds for the irregular purchase of insurance for public employees.
In his first accusation as a former president, Fernández is accused of hiring a “broker and private companies” to arrange the administration of insurance in official agencies during his time in government, the official Telam agency reported.
In addition to the former president, who handed over the mandate to the far-right Javier Milei on December 10, there were also the former head of the public company Nación Seguros Alberto Pagliano and the realtor Héctor Martínez Sosa, husband of Fernández’s historic private secretary María Cantero, were also charged.
This “without prejudice to the fact that further investigations will contribute to uncovering the involvement of other people in the reported maneuvers,” adds Federal Prosecutor Ramiro González in his statement.
The case fell to the Federal Court No. 11, headed by Judge Julián Ercolini, who must now confirm or reject the charges.
Ercolini told AFP that he had not yet received the document, but confirmed that prosecutor González had indeed decided on it.
On Tuesday, the former Peronist president tried to distance himself from the scandal and blamed his secretary.
“I doubt she would do something like that; if she did, I don’t support it (…) I can’t guarantee that she didn’t do something like that; if she did it, she exceeded her limits,” he told La Nación newspaper.
Alberto Fernández was president of Argentina between 2019 and 2023 by the Frente de Todos (center left). Its management experienced the Covid-19 pandemic and the renegotiation of a debt of the previous management, the highest in history granted by the International Monetary Fund: 57,000 million dollars, of which Argentina received 44,000 million.
His government was marked by discussions within the governing coalition and an increase in inflation, poverty and misery, but also in industrial activity and the employment rate.
SPRING: AFP
