In the Affidavit that José Luis Espert presented when assuming as a deputy in 2021 a striking fact appears: his company Variaza SA appears as created in July 2020. However, official records show that it had been constituted in December 2019, just at the end of the presidential campaign in which the economist had been a candidate. The difference in dates is not the only point to review. That same year, Espert declared an unusual patrimonial leap: he bought a house of 470 square meters in San Isidro, acquired a BMW 240i 0 km Coupé and added the inheritance of a property in parchment. All in parallel to the campaign contributions that never bleached before the electoral justice.
According to former members of his space, the financing of the 2019 campaign had a clear protagonist: Federico “Fred” Machado, aeronautical entrepreneur arrested in Argentina and required by the United States justice for fraud and drug trafficking. Machado would not only have contributed cash but also logistics: a Jeep Grand Cherokee armored and a private jet in which Espert flew at least 35 times, as can be seen from a judicial file based in the court of Marcelo Martinez de Giorgi, published by the newspaper Clarin.
The accounting books seized in Texas add a central element: a transfer of 200 thousand dollars in the name of sister, dated February 1, 2020 and linked to Aircraft Guarantee Corp, a company indicated as a drug trafficking screen. According to the newspaper La Nación, the operation was done on January 22, 2020.
In numbers, Machado’s contributions to the campaign – Adine and goods – would have climbed up to 700 thousand dollars. None of those figures appears in the affidavits of sister.
