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Argentina former president Kirchner faces trial for fraud

Xinhua, April 5, 2017 Adjust font size:

Former Argentinean president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is trialed by a federal court for charges of conspiracy and money laundering on Tuesday.

A statement by the court added that federal judge Claudio Bonadio had frozen assets belonging to Fernandez de Kirchner, who was in power from 2007 to 2015, worth 130 million pesos (8.4 million U.S. dollars).

Bonadio, of Buenos Aires' 11th Federal Criminal and Correctional Court, is investigating Fernandez de Kirchner for her alleged role in a conspiracy when she was president. She is accused of laundering assets and of blurring the line between her political role and business interests.

The case has become known in Argentina as "Los Sauces," the name of the former president's family company, dedicated to real estate.

The court is seeking to determine whether the former president and her children, Maximo and Florencia Kirchner, received money through Los Sauces from companies who were then handed public works contracts, gaming licenses and oil exploration contracts.

Bonadio's ruling, which is 392 pages long, also opened a trial into her children "for playing a leading role in a conspiracy," as well as entrepreneurs Cristobal Lopez, Lazaro Baez, Fabian De Sousa and Osvaldo Sanfelice, as "organizers."

The judge also ruled that none of the concerned were allowed to leave the country.

This is the second case opened into Fernandez de Kirchner. In December, another federal judge accused her of conspiracy and fraud because of dealings in Hotesur, her company dedicated to hotel investments.

The case saw other assets worth 10 billion pesos being frozen.

On March 23, Bonadio demanded that Fernandez de Kirchner appear in court to testify on whether, in the final days of her presidency, she conspired with executives at the central bank to carry out financial operations against the interests of the treasury.

According to the charge, the Central Bank sold U.S. dollars at a rate of 10.65 pesos, almost 50 percent lower than the price set by the New York Stock Exchange at the time. Enditem