The Argentine Justice has ordered a mass confiscation of assets that directly affect the Kirchner family. This is a resolution of the Federal Criminal Oral Court 2 (TOF 2) issued on November 18 within the framework of the so-called “Roads case”, in which he was convicted of fraudulent administration of public funds during the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
The total amount of the confiscation amounts to 684,990,350,139.86 Argentine pesosaccording to the update carried out by official experts, prosecutors and the Corps of Accounting Experts of the Supreme Court. In the original ruling the figure had been set at 84,835,227,378.04 pesos, but it was reviewed by the experts to adjust it to later values. The confiscated assets are: a property in El Calafate; 19 properties given to children, mainly in Santa Cruz; several pieces of land in El Calafate, including the plots where the Los Sauces Hotel Complex was built and two other large properties and all the assets (properties, vehicles, bank accounts, etc.) of the companies Austral Construcciones SA, Kank y Costilla SA, Gotti Hnos. SA, and Loscalzo y Del Curto SRL
The measure reaches not only Cristina Kirchner and the businessman Lazaro Baez, but also to their children Máximo and Florenceas owners of some of the assets identified in that process. In particular, Justice is targeting properties that, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, were transferred by Cristina to her children as an advance inheritance in 2016, among which are apartments in Río Gallegos and the Hotel Los Sauces. The youngest daughter of the family who, as a teenager, was named owner of some of the confiscated family assets was a trend on social networks.
A few years ago, this judicial situation damaged the health of Florencia Kirchner, who had to undergo therapy in Cuba to receive treatment for a lymphedemaan obstruction of the lymphatic system that causes the accumulation of fluid in the legs, as stated in a medical certificate presented by his defense before the Argentine Justice. Additionally, during her stay on the island she was diagnosed with a post-traumatic stress disordera condition that her own mother, Cristina Kirchner, attributed to “ferocious judicial persecution,” and which, according to Florencia, led to very deep emotional exhaustion.
The origin of the confiscation is the conviction for fraud against the State: the court considered it proven that, between 2003 and 2015, road works were awarded irregularly to companies linked to Báez and the Kirchners, with overpricing and bid manipulation, which generated economic damage to the State.
For Florencia Kirchnerthe impact of this decision is especially relevant because some of those assets that are confiscated are legally in his name, although the defense maintains that they were transferred by his mother at a time when there was supposedly no link with illicit activities. Furthermore, prosecutors had requested to move forward with the execution of the confiscation of their properties, and the court formally consulted their lawyers to give their opinion on the assets involved, which has triggered procedural disputes.
Why is this measure applied? Confiscation is an accessory penalty that is imposed on those convicted in a criminal trial, and its objective is to definitively deprive them of the instruments or effects of the crime, that is, assets that were used to commit it or that represent the illicit benefit. In this case, the court interprets that many of the Kirchners’ assets derive directly from the corruption maneuver.
There is a difference between confiscation and embargo. According to national legislation and official definitions, there is a clear distinction: the embargo (also called preventive seizure) is a precautionary measure. It implies a temporary prohibition to sell, transfer or dispose of an asset while the trial is pending. On the contrary, the confiscation implies the definitive loss of property by the convicted person, without the right to compensation, when a criminal sentence is issued.
In other words, with the embargo, the assets are “retained” while the judicial situation is defined; With confiscation, if the sentence remains firm, those assets end up being property of the State. Furthermore, in Argentina, confiscation is regulated by article 23 of the Penal Code, which provides that the instruments of crime (“instrumenta sceleris”) and the profits or profits of crime (“producta sceleris”) can be confiscated to benefit the State.
This massive confiscation from the Kirchner family represents one of the largest asset recovery actions ordered by the Argentine Justice in a corruption case, and puts in check part of the family assets that until now were under their legal control.
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