Closing In On The K Money Trail

Closing In On The K Money Trail

Post date : 06.10.2015 4:18 pm

Earlier today, we posted on the “me-toos” ruling, noting the deepening legal troubles for Argentina. Another legal blow came last week in Nevada when Judge Cam Ferenbach rejected a petition by M.F. Corporate Services, which the court previously determined to be the alter ego of notorious Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, to stay the discovery that had previously been granted to NML Capital.  The Nevada process has unearthed massive systemic corruption by businessmen with close ties to President Kirchner and her son, Máximo Kirchner.  For instance, the Nevada discovery process has helped expose direct ties between Cristóbal López and the Kirchner family, through their hotel businesses, which always seem to make money.  La Nacion andClarin have reported on the direct payments from López to the Kirchner family.

And in news from the Argentine justice system, the latest attempts by the Kirchner family to subvert the Argentine courts from investigating corruption in their hotel business also appear doomed.  Prosecutor Carlos Stornelli told Judge Claudio Bonadio on Wednesday that he opposes the Kirchner family’s attempt to move the investigation out of Bonadio’s court – where it has been advancing at record speed – to a more malleable court in the family’s native Patagonia.  Bonadio has been zeroing in on alleged use of the Kirchner hotels to launder millions of pesos in bribes from businessman Lázaro Báez, the former bank clerk turned top public works contractor during the Kirchner years.  Deputy Margarita Stolbizer, a center-left presidential candidate, filed a petition on Friday asking Bonadio to expand his investigation into Hotesur, the Kirchner’s holding company, to determine whether Cristina Kirchner herself used the company to launder money from corruption.  Stolbizer raised questions about irregularities and inconsistencies in the President’s public wealth disclosures that strengthen the suspicion of criminal behavior.