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It’s worthy of a Netflix script. An Argentine judge ordered the arrest of prominent businessmen and former public officials who were in charge of overseeing public works during the administrations of Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007) and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (2007-2015). They are charged with having been part of massive corruption scheme that ran for years: over $200 million were allegedly paid in bribes in return for public contracts. The main evidence against them are copies of eight notepads in which Juan Centeno (a former military officer and government driver) detailed the movement of bags with millions of dollars in cash to and from government offices, apartments owned by the Kirchners, and even the presidential palace.
The press had dubbed this “Argentina’s Lava Jato,” after the mega-corruption scandal in neighboring Brazil that rocked the country’s political and business establishments and sent former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to jail. Undoubtedly, the “notebooks scandal” is one of the largest corruption cases in Argentina’s history, given the amount of the bribes, the duration of the payments, the importance of the officials involved (including the late Néstor Kirchner), and the detailed nature of the evidence.
Further, the case is the first after Argentina’s Congress passed a “Repentance Law” in 2016, which allows prosecutors to offer plea bargains to corruption suspects: Centeno has already agreed to confess and provide information in exchange for a lenient sentence, which could deepen the investigation. This is also the first time in Argentina that a corruption scandal involves not only public officials but also the “supply side” of corruption: businessmen who agree to pay bribes in order to get public contracts. In Brazil, several businessmen signed deals with the prosecution and provided valuable information; many expect their Argentine counterparts to do the same. Some of the accused have business ties with companies owned by President Mauricio Macri’s family, which has been historically strong in the public construction sector. But this pales in comparison to the direct evidence against former President Fernández.
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