reveal how the “Camarita” cartelized the tenders for the national highway and paid bribes

In the final portion of the hearings to read out the charges that brought Cristina Kirchner and 85 other defendants to the dock, Federal Court 7 (TOF 7) introduced the motion for notice like the “Camarita”, where the focus was on advertising public works. This related case exposes the pact between businessmen and former officials to allow the bribery ring to perpetuate. It was in the novena Hearing broadcast via Zoom.

“That has been shown over the years Between 2003 and 2015, an illegal association existed, created, founded and led by the highest representatives of the country’s executive branch.and, to a larger extent, organized by representatives of the Ministry of Federal Planning, Public Investments and Services. In fact, this prosecution considered that it was proven that Cristina Elisabet Fernández, Julio De Vido, Roberto Baratta, José López, Ricardo Jaime and Juan Pablo Schiavi, Carlos Wagner, Ernesto Clarens, Nelson Javier Lazarte, Rafael Enrique Llorens, José María Olazagasti, Claudio Uberti, Oscar Centeno, Gerardo Ferreyra, German Ariel Nivello and Oscar Alfredo Thomas were part of this illegal association, which was founded and maintained during the specified period,” says the core allegation of the Cuadernos case.

The goal of the criminal organization was “to give its members the opportunity to illegally enrich themselves personally through negotiations and false agreements with businessmen from various industries.”

To this end, “they carried out a comprehensive plan in which they introduced a logistics limited to the collection of funds that, among others, construction, energy and transport contractors delivered as compensation for benefits granted to the companies they represented.

In this context, Camarita was created on August 22, 2018. as a detachment from main file No. 9.608/2018“After gathering elements that show that the illegal association was also active in the specific areas of public works, energy and transport.”

“The central hypothesis is that financial advances would have been paid through Ernesto Clarens to state representatives to obtain a percentage of the value offered for the work – generally between 3% and 20% – or more specific amounts related to work certificates,” was heard during the ninth hearing.

Carlos Wagner, former president of the Chamber of Construction, said that the financial advance was “usually 10% and from this advance a return of 5% was paid. Sometimes 3% if no financial advance was included in the work certificates for the work.”

19 companies met at various locations and decided on the distribution of the works. Once this was established, the next step was to determine its value, which should include the percentage of the bribe. There the then president of the chamber handed it over to José López, who in turn handed it over “I passed it on to the street people so they could add it to next month’s list.”. The list that the DNV people gave me was a list of labor certificates issued and owed by the companies. The 3% percentage was an agreement with (Ernesto) Clarens.”

The financier Ernesto Clarens, who was responsible for “converting the pesos into dollars” since there were foreign exchange restrictions, counted in his contribution as an accused collaborator, which consisted of a “system of cartelization of works in which the projects to be awarded and the amount and percentage to be paid for them were agreed with the businessmen.”

Based on the data provided and the evidentiary measures promoted, the federal judiciary found that “a system existed through which the criminal organization unlawfully collected money through the cartelization of public works.”

Without the businessmen, the criminal structure could not have emerged. There are 51 defendants in this file, most of whom are responsible for various companies.

Listings, few companies and percentages

In his statement, he described some key points of the debt collection mechanism: “It was a very cumbersome procedure because at first Vialidad paid poorly or late. Then it had to be done before a notary with notices. I never gave discounts on certificates. I gave discounts on checks and lent them money. I never gave discounts on work certificates and if it had happened, the documents would have to be accounted for, since they were legal transfers. These operations were carried out by the banks, “Supervielle, Nacion, etc. They were large amounts, I didn’t have the money to buy certificates, I sent them to Banco Macro to make these discounts and I think Supervielle and Galicia had that too,” Clarens added.

The companies, explained Clarens, “preferred to pay me 3% to the system in which I was involved rather than withdrawing it to a bank because the rate was expensive. The DNV sometimes took a year. I received the money, converted it into dollars, charging a commission for the exchange rate difference, and handed it over to Jose Lopez in the manner already explained. This in the period 2011/2013, after the death of Nestor Kirchner. My management, when they came to see me complaining about not being paid, I was supposed to call José Lopez and ask him why these people weren’t paid and if I could add them to the next list.

Among the data provided and included in the defense of financier K, the following was heard in the hearing this Thursday: “José López made the list of those who charged road transport fees every month and gave it to them.” to Fredes, who was an employee of his. Fredes gave it to Passacantando, Who was the treasurer of Roads who had no decision-making authority to pay. The businessmen agreed with José Lopez to settle the late debts and he sent them to pay 3% to my offices.”

DNV’s debts to the companies were so great, Clarens said, that “Lopez invented a system. He asked the companies to stop the pace of work so as not to generate more debt so that they would no longer certify. But the companies didn’t like that. The companies were trapped. Some companies complained to DNV, others filed lawsuits, and still others did nothing out of fear.”

In this section of his confession he stated: “DNV’s budget has gone to hell, You tendered more work than was included in the budget. This started in 2008/2009 and it just got worse.” For the federal judiciary, “everyone wins” in this system when it comes to business people.

During the hearing he became aware of, in the words of Ernesto Clarens, what changes had occurred in the debt collection system after the death of the former president.

He explained in his defence: “There were two phases. The first of the Camarita of 2004/2010 and there 10% of the contract was paid and it was paid as it was collected monthly. The companies knew that.” After a year after Kirchner’s death, it will be resumed in the form I explained. In the second phase I had contact with José López. What the collection of companies was, the one who decided was López.”

At that moment, the audience heard: “It was a tremendous time of illiquidity and companies willing to take over, some like Perales Aguiar, were on the verge of bankruptcy.” When they came to see me, I told Lopez and if they were included in the lists, Once they were paid, I asked them for a contribution to the policy or 3% of the amount collected, which was paid out at my office.”

Other details of the financier were also read by the secretary who said that on some occasions he had to call businessmen to contribute 3% of the amount collected.

But the system allowed everyone to win: “In principle, these 19 companies did not have to complain because they wanted to continue collecting. At the Camarita, companies that organized to get paid, they knew what they had to do. The relationship with the companies was very cordial; they wanted to be paid. “Either they had a connection to me or they had a connection to Lopez.”

La Camarita, the Argentine Chamber of Road Contractors, “gave me a monthly list of the works tendered, in each line there is a work, from this follows the date, the tender number, the work tendered, the official budget, the winning company and the amount offered, in the next column the percentage of the contract, the lines with a blue symbol indicate that these works were competently awarded.” The second list corresponds to the ranking of the cartelized companies“was part of what Clarens said.

The story continues: “The officials did not control much unless there was a financial advance. If the tender stipulated that the financial advance should be 20% of the total work, the company was asked to deliver half of the advance in a single delivery, whereas if the advance was 10% of the total work, the company was asked to give that percentage in installments. Regarding this process, I would like to mention that I never took part in the selection of the companies that contracted out the work On one occasion I informed José López about the complaints of the businessmen because the state did not pay them, told me that they should still give 10 percent, something that the businessmen stopped doing.

In the first hearings it was explained that the role of the businessmen was reflected in “venal pacts”, since the application stated that the companies “received favors from the State and the members of the parastatal group became rich through the payments, ensuring the continuity of the illegal association over time.”

Thus, the expenditure was “not a mere donation, unconnected with any benefit intended by the donor, but, on the contrary, a corrupt arrangement between private individuals and public officials in order to obtain benefits of a patrimonial nature on both sides.”

In fact, these money deliveries are “involved in an illegal collection system, “They tried to get the official to do something related to their duties: release a payment, award a work, extend a concession or a deadline, renegotiate a concession or receive subsidies themselves,” was heard throughout the day.