OPPOSITION LEADERS in Argentina have accused President Cristina Kirchner and her husband and predecessor Nestor of using insider information to benefit from currency speculation. It has been revealed that the former president bought $2 million just before the government let the peso weaken in response to the crisis sparked by the Lehman Brothers collapse.
Government ministers insist the transaction was above board, but opposition leaders have formally petitioned a federal judge to investigate the case.
Mr Kirchner said he bought the dollars not to benefit from insider information but to purchase a five-star hotel in El Calafate, the Patagonian resort in Santa Cruz that has become a favourite location for his inner circle to build luxury second homes and invest in the local tourist economy.
Dollar purchases and parking cash in property are traditional safe havens for wealthy Argentines in times of economic crises, which have traditionally seen the local currency battered.
The latest revelations follow Mrs Kirchner’s successful removal of the central bank’s president on Wednesday after a dispute over control of the country’s foreign reserves. During his battle to retain his post, Martín Redrado was quoted in an interview as threatening to reveal “specific lists of friends of power that bought dollars”.
Mr Redrado later denied he made the threat but since his ousting the media has got wind of Mr Kirchner’s dollar purchase.
The Kirchners have been accused of using inside influence and information to further their business interests in the past, specifically in lucrative land deals in Santa Cruz. The couple declared last year that their personal wealth had increased by 605 per cent to €8.5 million since Nestor Kirchner assumed the presidency in 2003.
According to the La Nacionnewspaper, a third of the rooms in Mr Kirchner's hotel are permanently booked by state-owned airline Aerolíneas Argentinas for its cabin crews, despite the town containing 30 other hotels, including five other five-star ones cheaper than Mr Kirchner's. The airline, taken back into state hands by Mrs Kirchner in 2008, was estimated to be losing almost €2 million a day when renationalised.
In a related scandal, the resignation was announced yesterday of one of Mrs Kirchner’s private secretaries who is under investigation for corruption. An old ally from Santa Cruz, Fabián Gutiérrez had worked for the Kirchners for the last 15 years.
A judge launched an inquiry into his financial affairs after it was revealed that he is building a mansion estimated to be worth more than $1 million in El Calafate, despite claiming assets of just $400,000.
Since Mr Kirchner came to power in 2003 Mr Gutiérrez’s wealth has increased seven-fold, according to a filing required by law with the Anti-corruption Office.
Mr Gutiérrez is one of several members of the Kirchners’ inner circle under investigation. Another aide has seen his declared personal wealth increase by 11,000 per cent since his bosses entered the presidential palace, while a third has seen his personal wealth go from 15,000 pesos in 2005, when he started to work for the Kirchners, to 750,000 in 2008, despite a salary of just 15,000 pesos.