Argentine judge summons Fernandez for questioning in fraud probe

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

World | Fri Feb 26, 2016 3:44pm EST

Argentine judge summons Fernandez for questioning in fraud probe

BUENOS AIRES

An Argentine judge has summoned former President Cristina Fernandez for questioning in a probe into the sale of dollar future contracts at below market rates by the central bank just months before she handed over power in December.

Judge Claudio Bonadio also summoned Fernandez's former economy minister, Axel Kicillof, and former central bank chief Alejandro Vanoli on suspicions of defrauding the public administration with the sale of $17 billion of contracts.

Bonadio summoned the former populist leader to appear for questioning on April 13 at 10 a.m. as the last of 13 suspects in the case.

Under Fernandez, the central bank routinely sold dollar futures to prop up the peso, partly in an attempt to anchor double-digit inflation in Latin America's No. 3 economy.

Two lawmakers last October filed a complaint alleging that the price at which the contracts were sold constituted a serious financial loss for the state.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-argentina-fernandez-investigation-idUSKCN0VZ2SR

[forest444]

1. The fraud is Macri's and Prat-Gay's by devaluing the peso 40% in a day - all the while shorting it.

To say nothing of the recent $15 billion giveaway to the vulture funds - 3 times more than NML and Aurelius' already outrageous demands.

Regarding the devaluation, we know Prat-Gay committed fraud thanks to testimony by Hernán Arbizu, former Vice President of JP Morgan Argentina, who exposed Prat-Gay's calls for devaluation as nothing more than a self-serving ploy to cash in on millions in put options (which, unfortunately, he now had the opportunity to carry out). Macri no doubt did too (he's known to have millions in a Miami bank account and in U.S. brokerage accounts).

As far as Judge Bonadío, he's notorious in Argentina as a Opus Dei hack - and for being one of Menem's "napkin" judges (in reference to the café napkin that Menem's right-hand man, Carlos Corach, used to keep a list of Menem's crony judges).

Bonadío's ties to Menem went on for years after Menem left office in 1999. He absolved the Yomas (Menem's outlaw in-laws) of all charges related to money laundering in 2004, even refusing to investigate the murder of Lourdes di Natale - the Yomas' executive secretary - after she was pushed from her apartment balcony the day before she was scheduled to testify.

The Yomas have a seething hatred for Cristina Kirchner because the Justice Ministry tried to restart the Yoma investigation (Bonadío, of course, blocked it). Bonadío is also an inveterate racist and homophobe, who even kept a secret dossier of dark-skinned slum youth and transvestites that many believe was part of a death squad hit list.