Weekly Report - 17 May 2012 (WR-12-19)

The charges are stacking up against Vice-President Amado Boudou. Illicit enrichment has now been added to the mix to go with influence peddling and money laundering allegations. The political opposition, smarting from having had to back the recent government nationalisation of the oil company YPF in order to remain true to its principles, is seizing on the scandal to call for Boudou to resign. In the very same week, another key ally of President Cristina Fernández was caught up in a corruption scandal, albeit indirectly: Hebe de Bonafini, the leader of the Fundaciόn Madres de Plaza de Mayo. Bonafini’s former right-hand man, Sergio Schoklender, was formally charged with embezzlement.

Federal judge Ariel Lijo this week accepted a request by the public prosecutor Jorge Di Lello to deepen an investigation into Boudou for illicit enrichment. In his report to Lijo, Di Lello maintained that, as economy minister between July 2009 and December 2011, Boudou benefited from a “vertiginous and unjustified increase in personal wealth”. The report also called for several of Boudou’s associates to be investigated: Agustina Kämpfer, his girlfriend; José María Nuñez Carmona, a friend and business partner; and Alejandro Vandenbroele, allegedly a business partner, although Boudou denies any dealings with him.

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