Argentina’s vice president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, was found guilty in federal court on Dec. 6 of having committed fraud in a scheme that embezzled about $1 billion through 51 public works projects while she served as president.
A three-judge panel convicted Fernández de Kirchner, marking the first time a vice president of Argentina has been convicted of a crime while holding office.
Fernández de Kirchner, who served as president of Argentina for two terms between 2007 and 2015, was sentenced to six years in prison, and received a lifetime ban from holding public office.
In Argentina, judges in such cases customarily pronounce verdicts and sentences first and explain how they reached their decisions later. The panel’s full decision is expected in February 2023. The verdict can be appealed up to the nation’s Supreme Court thereafter, in a process that could take years to complete.
The panel had rejected prosecutors’ efforts to have Fernández de Kirchner be convicted of running a criminal organization, for which the sentence could have been 12 years in prison.
Fernández de Kirchner denied all accusations against her and disputed the verdict. She described herself as the victim of a “judicial mafia.” She has said she will appeal the conviction. Until all appeals are exhausted, she won’t face her six-year prison sentence or be banned from public office.
Fernández de Kirchner announced later on Dec. 6 that she wouldn’t seek the presidency after her vice presidential term expires on Dec. 10, 2023.
“I’m not going to be a candidate for anything, not president, not for senator,” she said on her YouTube channel. “My name is not going to be on any ballot. I finish on December 10 and go home.”
The former president was accused of improperly granting contracts for public works, specifically to a company belonging to Argentine businessman Lázaro Báez. He is a friend and business associate of Fernández de Kirchner and her late husband, Néstor Kirchner, who also was a former president of Argentina, having served from 2003 to 2007 before he died suddenly in 2010.
Báez, as well as members of Fernández de Kirchner’s 2007–2015 presidential administration, were among about a dozen others accused in the fraud scheme. The three-judge panel sentenced Báez and Fernández de Kirchner’s public works secretary, José López, to six years. Most of the others received lesser sentences.
Prosecutors said that Báez’s company was created to embezzle revenue through improperly bid projects that were never completed in many cases. The company disappeared after Fernández de Kirchner and her late husband held 12 years of presidency, they noted.
President Alberto Fernández—who’s not related to his vice president—said on Twitter that she was innocent and that her conviction is “the result of a trial in which the minimum forms of due process were not taken care of.”
