Finance Minister Caputo: "Offshore accounts are not a crime"

Finance Minister Luis Caputo addressed Congress on Wednesday over Argentina’s rising foreign debt and the scandal surrounding his personal financial activity in tax havens.

As senators and lawmakers from the government’s legislative coalition Cambiemos focussed on questions regarding debt financing and the tax deficit, the opposition honed in on Caputo’s participation in offshore firms.

The Finance Minister was visibly frustrated at times, as lawmakers insisted on the tax haven scandal that has haunted him since early 2018.

“The smartest thing for me (to make money) would have been to stay in the private sector”, he said, insisting that having “offshore accounts is not a crime”.

Offshore accounts “are used for legal safety reasons and it is a common practice”, he added, describing offshore accounts as “safety deposit boxes”.

Caputo said that he fronted offshore accounts for third parties but insisted he was not an owner of the companies in question.

Opposition lawmaker Agustín Rossi claimed Caputo’s activities “might be legal” but formed part of different kind of “corruption”.

“You’ve just admitted that you’re a frontman. For whom?”, he charged.

Caputo's comments are consistent with the government’s position on the scandal. Cabinet Chief Marcos Peña recently said: “He (Caputo) makes his country and the government proud; he gave up everything to come to Argentina”.

SCANDAL

A Perfil and La Nación investigation in February revealed Caputo failed to declare information about his stake in offshore companies that manage hundreds of millions of dollars in tax havens.

From August 2009 to July 2015, Caputo was the major shareholder of the Princess International Group based in the Cayman Islands. He held more than 75 percent of the company’s shares.

However, he failed to include this information in legally-required affidavits for the 2014 financial year, which were presented to Argentina’s Anti-Corruption Office (OA) when he became a public servant in December 2015. He also withheld information in 2016 regarding the 2015 financial year.