Appeals chamber clears the way for forfeiture
The Fourth Chamber of Argentina's Federal Criminal Cassation Chamber has declared inadmissible the appeals filed by Máximo and Florencia Kirchner, along with a separate appeal by Sebastián Sánchez, the director of Hotesur SA and Los Sauces SA. The unanimous decision was signed by judges Gustavo Hornos, Mariano Borinsky and Diego Barroetaveña. The appeals sought to suspend the asset-execution proceedings and precautionary measures until the Supreme Court of Justice rules on a pending complaint tied to the forfeiture.[S1][S2][S3][S5]
The chamber held that the challenged resolution was not appealable because it did not constitute a final sentence, was not equivalent to one, and did not prevent the proceedings from continuing. The judges also found that the appellants had not demonstrated a present harm that would be impossible or difficult to repair later. They noted that the issues raised had not been definitively resolved but had merely been deferred and could be revisited at the appropriate procedural stage.[S1][S4][S5]
The Vialidad case and the 685 billion peso claim
The forfeiture is a patrimonial consequence of the final conviction in the Vialidad case, which examined irregularities in 51 road-works tenders awarded to companies owned by Lázaro Báez between 2003 and 2015. Court accountants have updated the amount sought to approximately 685 billion pesos, a figure for which the nine convicted defendants must answer jointly. The first batch of assets under consideration includes 111 movable and immovable properties, 19 of which are registered in the names of Máximo and Florencia Kirchner.[S1][S2][S3]
The case reaches the siblings because Cristina Kirchner transferred all her assets to them in equal, gratuitous shares in mid-2016. The Federal Oral Court No. 2, which is executing the sentence, applied the criterion that any assets the convicted parties added to their estates between 2003 and 2015, during the period of the criminal scheme, fall within the forfeiture sought by the Public Prosecutor's Office, represented by Diego Luciani.[S1][S2]
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A second wave of seizures and the companies
While the Supreme Court studies the first batch, the Federal Oral Court No. 2 is advancing a second round of forfeitures covering 144 movable and immovable properties, including assets belonging to the Kirchner family companies Los Sauces SA, a real-estate firm, and Hotesur SA, a hotel company. Prosecutors Diego Luciani and Sergio Mola also sought the forfeiture of more than 5.6 million dollars belonging to Florencia Kirchner, seized from a safe-deposit box at Banco Galicia, plus additional properties and vehicles identified by the Public Prosecutor's Office.[S1][S2][S3]
Judges Rodrigo Giménez Uriburu, Jorge Gorini and Andrés Basso ordered precautionary embargoes on the assets identified by the prosecutor. The court recalled that the final conviction established that the fraudulent public-works scheme generated direct economic benefits for Lázaro Báez and indirect benefits for the Kirchner family, and that a proven economic and commercial connection existed during the investigated period. The ruling stated that the money from the crime circulated through and settled in the assets of those companies.[S1][S2]
Properties in El Calafate and Río Gallegos
Among the assets identified are several properties in El Calafate, Santa Cruz. These include a 6,001.64-square-metre plot on Avenida 17 de Octubre at number 800, acquired in 2007, and two larger parcels of 44,106 and 87,046 square metres incorporated that same year. The inventory also lists the Los Sauces Casa Patagónica hotel, built on three plots, one owned by Los Sauces SA and two forming a condominium shared by Máximo and Florencia Kirchner. Other lands acquired between 2007 and 2008 include a 16,189-square-metre parcel where the Las Dunas hotel was later built.[S4]
In Río Gallegos, the list includes apartments built by Lázaro Báez and linked to the family's real-estate firm. One group is at Mitre 535 and has eleven units acquired by Néstor Kirchner on 10 April 2007 through a trust. Another ten units on the same street, at number 500, were later transferred to his children. Two more properties are listed: one at 25 de Mayo 255, bought on 6 September 2010, and another on Avenida Presidente Néstor Kirchner 490, added to the estate on 22 September 2006. The inventory is completed by other El Calafate plots acquired between late 2007 and early 2008.[S4]
