Overview
- Ricardo Alberto Cirielli testified before the federal oral court on Thursday and described repeated episodes in which former transport secretary Ricardo Jaime rode an elevator with a heavy leather bag about 70–80 cm long.
- Cirielli said the bag episodes occurred roughly every 15 days and that Jaime would say he was going to see “el Loco,” a reference to Néstor Kirchner, but the witness never saw the bags’ contents or sat in any meetings with Kirchner.
- The witness reported a private secretary told him she was sent to banks with bags of small-denomination bills to exchange for larger notes, and he recounted staff accounts of Jaime’s sudden ostentation, including gold jewelry, luxury suits and a reported yacht.
- Prosecutors in the Cuadernos case accuse Jaime of acting as a central collector of payments in the transport portfolio, including an alleged annual $500,000 scheme linked to the Hidrovía concession, and say Cirielli’s details add circumstantial support to that theory.
- The trial is ongoing and builds on earlier complaints to oversight bodies such as SIGEN and the Oficina Anticorrupción; Jaime has prior convictions and the new testimony sharpens the narrative of alleged pay-for-contract practices even though it stops short of documentary proof.