Axel Kicillof: the idiot who costs us dearly

The course of the trial for the expropriation of YPF began in April 2012, during the administration of the former President, convicted and imprisoned, Cristina Kirchner. At that time, the defendant announced her intention to nationalize YPF.

Petersen had purchased 25% of YPF's shares from Repsol on February 21, 2008, during Cristina Kirchner's government.  They first paid US$1.1 billion for 14.9% of the shares and then US$2.2 billion for the remaining 10.1%. Meanwhile, the Eton fund had purchased 3.04% of the shares in November 2010 for US$458 million.

On April 16, 2012, Cristina Kirchner announced her intention to take over YPF and on May 7 of that same year, the public interest law came into effect in Argentina, which left 51% of YPF's shares in Repsol's hands as subject to expropriation and under temporary occupation by the Argentine State, a situation that led Petersen to bankruptcy in Spain, where it had obtained the loans to acquire the oil company's shares.

The expropriation of YPF was completed in May 2014, after the National State paid the Spanish company Repsol US$5 billion in sovereign bonds.

At that time, YPF's then-intervenor Axel Kicillof refused to make the public tender offer for all the shares when he expropriated the 51%, which was established and predetermined by the oil company's own bylaws.

At that time, Kicillof stated before the National Congress that "We're not going to pay what they say, but the real cost of the company. The fools are those who think the State has to be stupid and buy everything according to YPF's bylaws."

Today, the judge of the Southern District of New York, Loretta Preska granted a request from the plaintiffs Burford and Eton Park, who claimed 51% of YPF's shares as part of the payment for the $16 billion judgment. The ruling was due to a lawsuit filed after Cristina Kirchner and Axel Kicillof's decision to expropriate the national oil company.

Preska determined today that the Argentine State has 14 days to transfer its YPF Class D shares to a global custody account at the Bank of New York Mellon (BNYM).

As President Javier G. Milei anticipated, Argentina will appeal this decision and will request that the effects be suspended until the appeal is solved, notwithstanding that Judge Preska will surely request a payment guarantee in exchange.

It is clear that, at this point and after a long road, history itself has left Kicillof in the role of the true fool in this story.

His fraudulent conduct—which implies that he always intended to defraud the State—left Argentina in the worst possible situation due to the breach of the statutory clauses that YPF itself had imposed. Kicillof simply decided deliberately to ignore the rules, resulting in harm to the State that, with interest, exceeds $25 billion.

Arguing that Kicillof's conduct is fraudulent is not arbitrary. This is what follows from his own decisions and statements at the time of YPF's expropriation. An attitude that, clearly, is at the very least punishable from the perspective of abuse of authority, violation of public official duties, embezzlement of public funds, and, why not, fraud to the detriment of the State.

Without a doubt, Kicillof's responsibility must be investigated and judged. Under no circumstances can it be accepted that harm like this—which all Argentines are paying for—goes unpunished.

This is also a matter that concerns society, since every two years, we must choose our representatives by virtue of the democratic system that prevails in our country. As members of this social body, we can't allow inept, criminal, or simply foolish individuals to occupy positions of power. Their power to cause harm is incomparable, and history doesn't allow us to lie about it.