In sign of shifting strategy, vice-president’s attorney stops representing Núñez Carmona.
Vice-President Amado Boudou will no longer share a legal defence team with his long-time friend and business associate, José María Núñez Carmona, as they both face questions from Judge Ariel Lijo about their alleged role in the case involving the company formerly known as Ciccone Calcográfica, which prints the country’s peso notes.
In his resignation, attorney Diego Pirota claimed an “incompatibility” between the legal advice that he gives Boudou as vice-president and Carmona as a “common citizen.” Pirota also criticized investigating Judge Ariel Lijo’s recent decisions in the case.
The announcement comes a day after Boudou distanced himself from Carmona during a live interview broadcast from the Senate with journalists from Clarín Group news channel Todo Noticias (TN) Ernesto Tenenbaum and Marcelo Zlotogwiazda.
In addition, Alejandro Vandenbroele — one of the people who is under scrutiny for his alleged role in the Ciccone affair — yesterday declined to answer questions from Judge Lijo in court and instead submitted a written brief and a request for a broader investigation.
Carmona and Boudou are long-time friends and business associates, but during the interview the Kirchnerite official said that the relationship between the two “is much more distant… I take issue with the fact that he should have informed me of some things so that I could say ‘This doesn’t make any sense.’” Asked for an example of this behaviour, Boudou answered, “the Ciccone case.”
Former prosecutor and UCR lawmaker Manuel Garrido explained to the Herald that “the shift may be in response to the fact that Lijo’s investigation would indicate that he is looking into bribery rather than influence — peddling” and that this was “a logical step for the defence to be taking.”
Garrido noted that “the judge seems to be indicating there could be bribery involved, which legally speaking, can occur directly but also through an intermediary,” he added. “To pre-empt the possibility of being charged with bribery, Boudou needs to separate himself from Núñez Carmona… the fact that his lawyer has also dropped Núñez Carmona makes sense and is part of the same strategy, particularly since the two could now have contradictory legal interests.”
Declined to answer
Alejandro Vandenbroele submitted his third brief to the judge yesterday — the first of which dates from 2012 — after Lijo denied his request to postpone his scheduled questioning. Vandenbroele allegedly owned The Old Fund, the company which bought Ciccone Calcográfica. Boudou has recognized that Vandenbroele and Núñez Carmona are acquaintances.
The brief will now be added to the case file and as such will complement previous written statements made by Vandenbroele to the judge.
According to Vandenbroele’s ex-wife, Laura Muñoz, whose report instigated the initial investigation, Vandenbroele is Boudou’s front-man. The vice-president has consistently and repeatedly denied knowing Vandenbroele. Yesterday, Vandenbroele reaffirmed that he does not personally know Boudou.
Germán Soria, his defence attorney, reiterated that a financial audit of the funds received by The Old Fund should be carried out.
The defence justified its request on the grounds that the funds for the purchase of the Ciccone company were provided by the Mayer Business Corporation, which they allege belongs to former banker Raúl Moneta.
Furthermore, the request fits in with an Appeals Court decision that ordered Lijo to further probe the money trail in the case. Boudou had also named Moneta as a financier for the purchase of Ciccone during his testimony on Monday.
Vandenbroele also said that he had been hired by Guillermo Reinwick, Nicolás Ciccone’s son-in-law, to help lift the company out of bankruptcy.
Once the financial audit is complete, Soria said that Vandenbroele might give further testimony to Lijo. Argentine law permits suspects to decline to give testimony, but also allows suspects to testify before a judge as many times as they like.
Rafael Resnick Brenner and Guillermo Reinwick are scheduled to come before Judge Lijo for questioning today. Resnick Brenner was a chief adviser to AFIP tax bureau head Ricardo Echegaray, who agreed to a payment plan that benefited the mint company that had filed for bankruptcy in 2010. Boudou mentioned Reinwick, son-in-law of Nicolás Ciccone, the former owner of Ciccone, during his TN interview. Boudou acknowledged that he had met him at the Palacio Duhau hotel but at the time that he had no idea that he was Ciccone’s son-in-law.
Nicolás Ciccone is scheduled to be questioned on June 16 and Núñez Carmona on June 19.
‘Off-the-record machos’
Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich yesterday refused to comment on what the vice-president had called “off-the-record machos” within the government that had engaged in media operations against him.
Capitanich said that “the vice-president should be the one to name names” during his daily press conference at Government House.
Boudou has bitterly complained in the past that media outlets are working against him and his comments suggested that at least certain unnamed sectors in the government were part of that effort.
Diego Bossio, the head of the ANSeS social security agency, expressed hope that “the judges act in accordance with the law and that they won’t be influenced by the media and public opinion.” Bossio also noted that “Amado has taken transcendental decisions,” in clear reference to the nationalization of private pension schemes, which negatively affected some business interests and which government allies believe may have motivated the accusations against him.
buenosairesherald.com