As the corruption allegations pile up against Lázaro Báez, Cristina appears to have instructed her deputies to play down her associations with the construction magnate. Unfortunately for Cristina, their intimate business relations are not easy to mask.

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It's Almost Halloween, But No Mask can Hide the Kirchner/Báez Relationship

October 27, 2014 As the corruption allegations pile up against Lázaro Báez, Cristina appears to have instructed her deputies to play down her associations with the construction magnate. Unfortunately for Cristina, their intimate business relations are not easy to mask.  During a radio interview in Buenos Aires this past week, the head of the Argentine Federal Administration of Public Revenue (AFIP), Ricardo Echegaray, vehemently insisted that "Cristina Fernandez and Lázaro Báez are not partners." However, Echegaray did admit that the two have "business links" but that this "does not mean they are partners or associates." Did everyone get that? A piece in Clarin titled, "The dealings of the Kirchners with Lazaro that Echegaray omitted," stated that "as partners they shared contracts, trusts and purchases of properties and public land. Sales of homes, trusts, vacation rentals, management of these shared lands, and the transfer of public land are just some of the many business links between the Kirchners and Lazaro Baez." In addition, Báez has received millions in public work contracts from both Nestor and Cristina. According to La Nacion, Baez, a former banker, created his company, Austral Construcciones, just days before Nestor Kirchner took over as President of Argentina in May 2003. Since 2004, the province of Santa Cruz has been one of the provinces that benefited the most in terms of funding for public works. Over the years, Baez received 70% of the bids for these public works projects. Just today it was reported that the 123 shell companies affiliated with Báez in Nevada have refused to provide information to the court regarding their accounts. A federal judge ruled in August that these companies must present details, such as who owns the companies and who is authorized to give instructions to these businesses. The attorney for the companies has stated that they do not have this documentation.  One-hundred twenty-three companies represented by a lawyer that doesn't know who owns or runs the companies? Doesn't seem strange at all. In an interesting but not surprising twist, tax chief Echagaray also admitted that his own office, AFIP, had investigated various Báez companies for falsifying bills and other documents. Echegaray stated that it has been determined that at least one of Baez's companies, Calvento SA, "has no commercial activity, and is considered by his body a "false invoice mil." The investigation is ongoing.

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