Former Argentine President Alberto Fernández was in the crosshairs of Justice this Thursday for a scandal involving insurance contracts by public organizations during his Government. Prosecutor Ramírez González charged him with the alleged commission of the crimes of violation of the duties of a public official and embezzlement of funds.
The complaint asks that the former president, who was in the Casa Rosada between 2019 and 2023, be investigated for alleged irregularities linked to a decree that Fernández signed at the end of 2021 in which he ordered that all public organizations must contract insurance in the Nation. Insurance, belonging to Banco Nación, a State institution. The complainants accuse the former president of having favored his friends, who acted as intermediaries in exchange for million-dollar commissions.
Although these insurances might be contracted directly, the public organizations used his friend Héctor Martínez Sosa, husband of his secretary, María Cantero, as an intermediary. Martínez Sosa also appears as a creditor of the former president in his sworn statements. In addition to Martínez Sosa, among those charged is the former head of Nación Seguros Alberto Pagliano. The scandal that affects the former Peronist president investigates an alleged fraud of 20,000 million pesos, almost 20 million dollars.
At first, Fernández tried to divert suspicion towards his secretary: “I didn’t ask for anyone, and if my secretary did, she overstepped her bounds.” After the accusation this Thursday, he was more categorical in his defense: “I have not stolen anything and I have not participated in any negotiation or authorizing any negotiation,” he declared to Radio La Red.
Martínez Sosa and other insurance providers appear as visitors to the Olivos presidential villa in 2020, even during the confinement decreed by the covid-19 pandemic. Fernández does not deny the link, but denies that the visits were business. “I make a cult of honesty. I know that I am a public man and I am speaking to explain to people,” he added.
González has requested “all agreements or contracts” made by the different departments of the State that signed insurance contracts under the terms of the presidential decree. The prosecutor has requested that the Insurance Superintendency reveal what the market percentage was for this type of operations. The accusation takes place a few days following the former president returned to Argentina. After handing over the baton to Javier Milei on December 10, Fernández traveled to Spain to settle there for a couple of months with his family.
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