Argentina's Hotesur-Los Sauces trial opened Friday with its first hearing, held entirely by videoconference, and ended shortly before 1 p.m. local time, according to Clarin.com. Presiding judge José Michilini of Federal Oral Court No. 5 closed the session after court staff read the first portion of the prosecution's request to send the case to trial.
Cristina Kirchner and her son Máximo Kirchner followed the proceedings remotely over Zoom, La Nación reported. The court read the charges against more than 30 defendants in a session that, for most of its length, consisted of the secretary of the tribunal reading the indictment aloud, Clarin.com reported.
Why it matters
The case centers on two family companies, Hotesur S.A. and Los Sauces S.A., and on whether money from construction and energy firms was routed through their hotel and real-estate operations. Prosecutors argue the Kirchners' role was central to moving the alleged scheme forward, and the reading of the indictment is the first formal step toward a full trial.
The case is also politically charged. The ruling bloc's caucus in Congress, Unión por la Patria, rejected the proceedings, with Página|12 reporting the phrase "they are trying to proscribe a surname" as the bloc's response. Both Kirchners hold prominent positions in that movement.
The charges read in court
According to Clarin.com's account of the hearing, prosecutors asked that Cristina Kirchner be tried as the head of an illicit association, as a co-author of money laundering and for accepting gifts or payments. Máximo Kirchner was charged as the organizer of the alleged network and as a co-author in the laundering of funds.
The indictment also named Lázaro Báez as an organizer of the association and co-author of laundering, with prosecutors extending the relevant period to cover the separate Vialidad case. Cristóbal López and Fabián De Sousa were charged as co-authors of money laundering, for offering payments and as organizers of the alleged group.
Former Kirchner accountant Víctor Manzanares was charged as an organizer of the illicit association and for laundering. Prosecutors said he supplied technical expertise to build the structure, kept the accounts throughout, set the company's tax address at his own office in Río Gallegos and managed properties belonging to the company and to the Kirchners, Clarin.com reported.
Osvaldo Sanfelice was described as holding two roles at once: proxy for Los Sauces and an employee of Álcalis de la Patagonia. Prosecutors said he took part in receiving payments from López and De Sousa through cheques issued by Indalo to the family company, and that between January 2009 and March 2016 he designed and carried out a mechanism to legitimize money from the Báez and Indalo groups through hotel and real-estate business.
The court also read charges against Martín Báez, Emilio Carlos Martín, Carlos Sancho and Romina Mercado as members of the illicit association and co-authors of laundering. Leandro Báez, Luciana Báez, Claudio Bustos and Martín Jacobs were listed as necessary participants in the laundering offense. Notaries, bank staff and other collaborators were named as well, including five Banco Nación employees accused of failing to record financial transactions.
Figures cited in the indictment
Prosecutors put a number on the flow of money into Los Sauces. According to the reading summarized by Clarin.com, De Sousa channeled 18,554,725.76 pesos directly through Inversora M&S and Álcalis de la Patagonia, plus 561,665.57 pesos indirectly through Idea S.A., amounting to 65 percent of everything Los Sauces billed between 2009 and 2016.
The indictment also alleged that Cristóbal López personally signed the Inversora M&S cheques that moved the funds, and that he hired people close to the former presidents — Romina Mercado, Osvaldo Sanfelice and Alberto Leiva among them — into Indalo Group companies, placing them on both the paying and receiving sides of the transactions.
Prosecutors framed the alleged conduct as a lasting arrangement to disguise payments they say were offered to Néstor and Cristina Kirchner in exchange for state contracts and benefits, Clarin.com reported. All of the accusations were presented by the prosecution; no verdict has been reached, and the defense has not yet presented its case.
What to watch
The court has yet to move into the second stage of the reading, which deals with the laundering of the funds at issue. The next hearing will show how quickly the tribunal intends to proceed and whether the defense challenges the charges before testimony begins.
