A court on Monday acquitted former federal planning minister Julio De Vido but convicted four other defendants over the alleged diversion of public funds earmarked for social housing in the long-running corruption case.
Former public works secretary José López, former public works undersecretary Abel Fatala and brothers Sergio and Pablo Schoklender were found guilty by Federal Oral Criminal Court No. 5 in the so-called ‘Sueños Compartidos’ case, which centred on funds transferred to a housing programme run by the Madres de Plaza de Mayo Foundation.
All four received suspended prison sentences of less than three years and will not go to jail.
López and Fatala were sentenced to two years and nine months for fraudulent administration resulting in losses to the state, while Sergio Schoklender received two years and eight months and his brother Pablo two years and four months.
López and Fatala were also given lifetime bans from holding public office.
The verdict was handed down at the Comodoro Py federal courthouse in Buenos Aires by judges Adriana Palliotti, Daniel Obligado and Adrián Grünberg, just one day before the proceedings were due to expire under the statute of limitations period considered by prosecutors.
The case dates back to 2011 and was committed to trial in 2019, but repeated procedural delays meant hearings did not begin until March this year.
The court imposed sentences lower than those sought by prosecutor Diego Velasco, who had requested six-year sentences for De Vido, López, Fatala and the Schoklender brothers and four years for the remaining defendants.
The court also ordered, by a majority decision, the forfeiture of assets under precautionary seizure worth 206 million pesos, the amount it determined had been diverted from public funds. The figure will be adjusted when the ruling becomes final.
The court acquitted former Planning Ministry official Carlos Castellano, Fatala's former adviser Daniel Freidin and former Santiago del Estero provincial government officials Daniel Nasif and Karina Nasif.
A hearing had been scheduled for November 13 at 5pm, at which the grounds for the convictions and acquittals will be read.
At the hearing, Sergio Schoklender, who was formerly the foundation’s legal representative, rejected the verdict.
“This is absurd. Not a fucking peso was diverted,” he told reporters outside the courthouse, arguing that unfinished homes were left after he had departed the foundation in 2011.
The trial over the ‘Sueños Compartidos’ case began last March, investigating the alleged diversion of more than 206 million pesos in public funds allocated by the national government to the Madres de Plaza de Mayo Foundation for the construction of social housing.
According to the indictment, the government transferred 748 million pesos to the foundation between March 2008 and June 2011, of which 206.4 million was identified as having been diverted from its intended purpose.
The money was intended to finance social housing, but prosecutors alleged that the programme was plagued by irregularities, including public works carried out at inflated prices and, in some cases, without competitive tendering.
The foundation was established by the mothers of people who disappeared during Argentina's 1976-1983 military dictatorship.
Hebe de Bonafini, the historic head of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, was also charged in the case but died in November 2022 at the age of 93, before the trial concluded.
López, who served in the governments of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, has been imprisoned since 2016 after he was caught trying to hide US$9 million in cash in bags at a monastery. That case is separate from the ‘Sueños Compartidos’ proceedings.
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL
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