Argentina: Top Macri officials indicted

[sandensea]

Federal indictments were issued today in Argentina against former Energy Minister Juan José Aranguren and the current head of the Anti-Corruption Office (OA), Laura Alonso, over charges of self-dealing by Aranguren and obstruction of justice on his behalf by Alonso.

The charges against Aranguren stem from his February 2016 order to import 195 million ft³ of natural gas daily from British Gas, a Chilean-based natural gas importer purchased by Shell Argentina just months before then newly-elected President Mauricio Macri named Aranguren Energy Minister.

The purchase was made after cancelling one from Bolivia - which was 56% cheaper.

Aranguren, 65, was CEO of Shell Argentina from 2003 to 2015, and is still a sizable shareholder in the firm.

He resigned as Energy Minister in 2018 after the Paradise Papers scandal revealed him to be a principal in two Barbados-based offshore companies - including a Shell subsidiary which received large contracts from the Macri administration.

These apparent conflicts of interest were first denounced in 2016 - but the case remained stalled in the courts largely because the Anti-Corruption Office (OA) refused to file charges.

Vulture culture

The OA is headed by Laura Alonso, who has refused to file charges against Macri or his officials in at least 20 cases in which the OA itself recommended them.

Alonso, 46, is the first OA head to belong to the same party (Macri's hard-right PRO) as the administration it is charged with overseeing - and the first to lack a law degree, which the post requires.

She received funding in 2014 by vulture funder Paul Singer, amid Singer's demands for a 1,600% payout on defaulted bonds bought from resellers. Macri's 2016 settlement reportedly netted Singer an 1,180% return.

Alonso and Aranguren become the second and third top Macri officials to be indicted since October 18, when former Social Security Trust Fund (FGS) director Luis María Blaquier was indicted over a 2016 FGS stock purchase in the Clarín Group - in which he was a major shareholder, and on which the FGS lost $22 million.

The Clarín Group, Argentina's largest media conglomerate, are prominent backers of Macri, who on October 27 became the first Argentine president to lose re-election.

Macri, who leaves office on Tuesday, is facing up to 144 charges ranging from corruption, self-dealing, and abuse of power against opponents.

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&tab=wT&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eldestapeweb.com%2Fnota%2Fcorrupcion-m-procesaron-a-juan-jose-aranguren-y-laura-alonso--201912612170

Anti-Corruption Office (OA) head Laura Alonso and former Energy Minister Juan José Aranguren, indicted today for his self-dealing on Shell gas imports and her role in their cover-up.

Two of the most visible - and controversial - top officials in the outgoing Mauricio Macri administration, they are among over 50 top Macri officials facing charges ranging from corruption to abuse of power.

Argentine courts, which the UN on November 4 accused Macri of pressuring, had long refused to pursue many of these charges - some of which date from 2016.

But they have become more proactive since Macri's October 27 re-election defeat - and since revelations that Macri had been routinely spying on most of the judiciary.

[Judi Lynn]

1. So many criminals! Remember seeing Alonso's photo in earlier Macri times.

Macri created a totally criminal enterprise using taxpayers' hard-earned money, didn't he?

Went to look for Luis Maria Blaquier, who has come into his own full criminal flower very successfully, able to stand on his own criminal feet in prison I hope! I discovered his uncle Carlos Pedro Blaquier is a master successful criminal, deemed one of Argentina's wealthiest "entrepreneurs." He's way over the top, according to his Wikipedia!

All were so busy self-dealing, and making deals with each other and there was so much which involved so many state assets in other countries, too, apparently. It was a total free-for-all as they stuffed their own pockets as fast as possible. They don't need a 2nd Macri term, apparently they've made off with most of the assets already.

Unbelievable.

If only they will take the 144 charges seriously, and do respectable work prosecuting them.

It most certainly does remind people, as Chris Matthews mentioned this week regarding Trump, of seeing what goes on under rocks where insects are living in their own world!

Is it safe to imagine Macri is going to stay in Argentina long enough to get nabbed before absconding with the very last remnants of the Treasury? The idea of capital flight becomes clearer and clearer now as more detailed stories are being delivered. What a shame Clarín will still be around, clicking along, looking forward to the next fascist takeover. One has to wonder if Clarín gets secret funding from the U.S., like El Mercurio's funding has been streaming all those long years before, during, and after Pinochet, busy trying to control mass perception of Chile's leaders, with the Edwards family on the take, growing wildly prosperous while stabbing the people in the backs continually.

They abuse the people they purport to serve by taking their money and by misinforming them for their patronage. That makes the "news" outlets as dirty as the politicians.

Maybe there will be a pool as people try to guess successfully which country will be the one Macri chooses to be his hide-out.