Federal prosecutor Ramiro González accused former president Alberto Fernándezthe former head of Nación Seguros, Alberto Pagliano, and Héctor Martínez Sosa, for the alleged crime of fraudulent administration regarding the suspected negotiations at Anses with the contracting of insurance for retirees who took out loans and the million-dollar commissions that were paid to nearby intermediaries.
The case initiated by the prosecutor is as a result of the complaint filed by lawyer Silvina Martínez. The Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the alleged fraudulent administration, together with the former official – and Fernández’s close confidant – Alberto Pagliano, former head of Nación Seguros. Martinez had denounced them for embezzlement of public funds, violation of the duties of a public official and abuse of authority.
The prosecutor’s office put the magnifying glass on the regulations that imposed the obligation on the state public sector to contract insurance services exclusively with the public company “Nación Seguros SA.”
In that sense, as stated in the complaint that gave rise to the judicial file, it was exposed that the plot of “opaque” hiring revealed through a publication in the newspaper Clarionwhere it was assured that “Nación Seguros” subcontracted an intermediary in the case of ANSES insurance who benefited from a 17% commission, that is, three times higher than the market.
Commission earnings would have been estimated at 300 million pesos monthly and $20,000 million annually.
The information revealed maintains that Pablo Torres García (ANSES) and Héctor Martínez Sosa (husband of Alberto Fernández’s Secretary, María Cantero) would have been the “beneficiaries or intermediaries of said contracts, that is, those who would have obtained significant sums of money from the businesses undertaken with the support of the aforementioned Decree.”
Given the information contained in the criminal complaint, prosecutor Ramiro González considered that there are sufficient elements to begin the investigation and charge those responsible for the maneuver, including former president Alberto Fernández.
The initial measurements
With the investigation underway, the prosecutor requested a series of test measuresamong them requesting the Head of the Cabinet of Ministers and the Legal and Technical Secretariat of the Presidency “to provide the background, actions and/or legal opinions related to the issuance of the Decree No. 823/2021″.
Likewise, they requested all agreements or contracts carried out from the different departments of the National State that signed insurance contracts and that they were governed by the regulations that enable the figure of intermediaries.
On the other hand, the prosecutor requested that the Legal and Technical Secretariat and the National Insurance Superintendency “provide relevant data in that sense, while at the same time being able to reveal the question regarding What was the market percentage for that type of operations?”.
“Seguros Nación” was asked to send the “totality of contracts or agreements signed with public departments from Decree 823/2021, providing all the data available regarding the participation of intermediaries between that body and the contracting government entity.”
The Anti-Corruption Office as a complainant
It must be remembered that this Wednesday the Anti-Corruption Office (OA) of the Javier Milei government, asked to hear the case.
Official sources indicated Clarion that they did it “to coordinate our request to be plaintiffs, which we will specify in the coming days.”
Once the judge resolves this request, the OA will begin its intervention in the case and “we will request the evidentiary measures that will allow us to establish what criminal maneuvers were committed.”
On the other hand, the OA wants it to be determined “who was responsible for the reported events” on which they will ask “to clarify who benefited economically from these events to also claim the corresponding economic reparations.”
The “discharge” of Alberto Fernández
According to the newspaper La Nación, The former president distanced himself from the dense suspicions that hover over him. In a line that he had already followed with respect to his partner Fabiola Yañez when the party scandal broke out in Olivos during the pandemic, Fernández placed the possible responsibilities on his secretary María Cantero, wife of the targeted broker Héctor Martínez Sosa: “I doubt she would do such a thing; If she did it, I don’t endorse it; No one is going to tell you that I asked for someone; I doubt it, but I can’t guarantee that she hasn’t done something like that; If so, he overstepped his bounds.”.
The former president said that he “never” spoke with his friend and creditor – as stated in his sworn declaration of assets – regarding his work as an intermediary between state entities, and that he stated that he has not seen Martínez Sosa “for one or two years.”
The case of alleged insurance scams – revealed by Clarion on Sunday – also stains one of the supposed merits of which Alberto Fernández he used to boast: not being corrupt. This apparent difference was used in his public interventions to differentiate himself from his Kirchnerist partners.
