Overview
- Eighty-seven defendants, including former ministers and executives in construction, energy and transport, are being tried in what is widely described as Argentina’s largest corruption case.
- Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, under house arrest on a separate six-year fraud conviction, denies the new charges and labeled the proceedings a “show trial.”
- The case stems from detailed notebooks kept by driver Oscar Centeno documenting alleged cash deliveries, evidence the defense plans to contest over reported alterations.
- Several business leaders testified as cooperating “repentants” about payments to officials, though some later recanted, alleging coercion under the late judge Claudio Bonadio.
- The Supreme Court recently rejected more than 20 appeals, clearing the path to trial; sessions are on Zoom, more than 600 witnesses are expected, and offers of cash and assets from defendants to exit the case were rejected.