Former Argentine President Alberto Fernandez was investigated on corruption charges.

Former Argentine President Alberto Fernández was the target of justice this Thursday over a scandal involving insurance contracts by public organizations during his government. Prosecutor Ramírez González charged him with the alleged crimes of breach of duty of a public official and embezzlement of funds.

The complaint calls for the former president, who was in the Casa Rosada between 2019 and 2023, to be investigated for alleged irregularities related to a decree that Fernández signed in late 2021, in which he ordered that All public organizations must contract insurance in the nation. , Insurance, belonging to Banco Nación, a state institution. Complainants accused the former president of favoring his friends, who acted as intermediaries in exchange for million-dollar commissions.

Although these insurances could 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, those charged include Alberto Pagliano, the former head of Nación Seguros. The scandal affecting the former Peronist president investigates an alleged fraud worth 20,000 million pesos, approximately $20 million.

At first, Fernandez tried to turn suspicion toward his secretary: “I didn’t ask anyone, and if my secretary did, she overstepped her bounds.” This Thursday, after the accusation, he was more clear in his defense: “I have not stolen anything and I have not participated in any conversation or authorized any conversation,” he told Radio La Red. declare.

Martínez Sosa and other insurance providers appeared as visitors at the Olivos presidential villa in 2020, even during the ongoing confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fernandez does not deny the link, but denies that the visits were commercial. “I make a creed of honesty. “I know I’m a public figure and I’m speaking out to make people understand this,” he said.

González requested the release of “all agreements or contracts” made by the various departments of state that have signed insurance contracts under the terms of the presidential decree. The prosecutor requested that the Superintendent of Insurance explain what the market percentage was for this type of operation. This allegation came a few days after the former President returned to Argentina. After handing over the baton to Javier Miley on 10 December, Fernández moved to Spain with his family for a few months and settled there.

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