Argentine Court Upholds US$500 Million Seizure of Cristina Kirchner’s Assets

Overview

• The Federal Cassation Court, which ruled Friday, left in place a US$500 million asset seizure covering 104 properties tied to Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, her two children, and businessman Lázaro Báez.
• The order covers 1 asset of Kirchner, 19 properties she had ceded to her children, and 84 of Báez, and those 19 include hotels and apartments in southern Argentina, according to La Nación.
• Kirchner’s lawyer Gregorio Dalbón said they will appeal to the Supreme Court and argued the ruling wrongly applies penal effects to assets inherited from the late Néstor Kirchner and to their children.
• The seizure enforces a 2022 conviction in the Vialidad case, which found that public roadwork contracts in Santa Cruz were steered to Báez, and Kirchner is serving a six-year sentence under house arrest with a ban from public office.
• Some reports had cited about US$490,000 in indemnifications, but AFP reported that the appeals court upheld a far larger US$500 million confiscation, a gap that could shape public views of the case and its enforcement.