Overview
- Judge Ariel Lijo, who ordered the indagatorias Friday, acted on a filing by prosecutor Carlos Stornelli that alleges a network of corruption, influence peddling and conflicts of interest in Argentina’s 2020 vaccine negotiations.
- Hugo Sigman is scheduled to appear May 19, Pedro Cahn on May 26 and Carla Vizzotti on June 2, with additional summons stretching to September as the court hears from more former officials and industry representatives.
- Stornelli says Pfizer offered Argentina a delivery plan for 13.2 million doses in August 2020 and argues delays in signing caused the country to lose its reserved global allocation while deals advanced with AstraZeneca, Sputnik V and Sinopharm.
- The prosecution claims Pfizer-related files were concealed and mishandled in Argentina’s GEDO electronic records system, leaving key documents stalled in government offices for months without a technical reason.
- An indagatoria is a formal questioning of an accused person in Argentina’s criminal process, and these hearings mark a preliminary stage of evidence-gathering with no convictions or final rulings to date.