Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Argentina's Cristina Fernández on currency speculation scandals

The former (and likely future) President of Argentina Cristina Fernández has been targeted by current conservative President Maricio Macri's party and government with cooked-up but nevertheless vague accusations of corruption. Cristina and her former Finance Minister Axel Kicillof gave statements to Federal Judge Claudio Bonadio last week over a policy her government had instituted called the "future dollar." It was a device by which investors could make a futures bet on whether the currency would go up or down. It was a policy device to stabilize the currency. (CFK faces Judge Bonadio, accuses gov't of 'making' a case against her to 'deprive' her of her 'liberty' Buenos Aires Herald 04/13/2016)

Bonadio was accused them of a crime just for setting up the policy. He didn't even claim that they had violated the law or given inside information to investors to let them cheat the system.

But, as Cristina herself explains at her website, there were people who may have made money on the "future dollar" system who may also have benefited from inside information (Future dollar and the “unscrupulous illegally enriched” 04/19/2016):

Some names of the “unscrupulous future dollars buyers” have been revealed. Do you think they are all K? Look, Caputo S.A. company bought in the Rosario term market 3.56 million dollars between October 8th and 27th, in 2015. Do you know who Caputo is? Nicky, for his friends. Close confidant of Macri, he was his wedding witness and usual attendant in the meetings of the Presidente with the cabinet.

You know who is mentioned too? The Macri family, that via Socma-Chery firm, adquired 8 million dollars at future price, later multiplied –not as bread and fishes- because of the devaluation determined, among others, by Central Bank president, prosecuted Sturzenegger, who paid in spite of the cause presented by his political party.

There are other “unscrupulous”: senior presidential adviser and PRO national party trustee José María Torello, bought 800.000 dollars in future dollar contracts, on October 27th, charged in February. The secretary of Interministerial coordination, former CEO in Farmacity, Mario Quintana, one of the illustrious negotiators in the pay to vulture funds, bought almost 1.5 million dollars, last September, via his Pegasus fund.

But pay attention, there are more “unscrupulous”: media companies. The newspaper La Nación bought 4 millions dollars. Grupo Clarin’s television network, Cablevisión, got 11 million dollars multiplied by the devaluation. That’s right, Clarin is always involved in this kind of things. And not precisely for being the sweetest thing.

Who benefited from the devaluation? Obviously, those who decided to devaluate, that apparently are not only in the Central Bank. Who were perjudicated by the devaluation? As usual, the Argentinian people. Question: when did they buy those millions of dollars? Did they know that in case of winning the elections they would devaluate, as the candidate denied it on TV?
A federal prosecutor, Jorge Di Lello, is opening an investigation into Banadio and Macri's Central Bank president Federico Sturzenegger over their accusations against Cristina and Kicillof. (Dólar futuro: imputaron a Claudio Bonadio El Destape 20.04.2016)

See also:

Vanoli: 'CFK, Kicillof had nothing to do with dollar futures operations' Buenos Aires Herald 04/20/2016

“Un escándalo que no tiene fin” Página/12 19.04.2016

Los beneficios de adivinar el futuro Página/12 18.04.2016

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