The Federal Court confirmed the accusations regarding an alleged fraud scheme related to the manufacturing of school smocks.
On the other hand, the maneuver included the subcontracting of the cooperatives Solutex Ltda. and General Mitre Manos Unidas Ltda., which did not have real operational capacity to carry out the committed tasks.
The judges reaffirmed the prosecutions for the crime of aggravated fraudulent administration to the detriment of the public administration and, in some cases, also for abuse of authority.
The Federal Chamber of Buenos Aires confirmed the prosecutions of former officials Kirchnerists and members of cooperatives in a case investigating alleged fraudulent maneuvers with public funds intended for the production of lab coats during the government of Alberto Fernández.
The resolution was signed by judges Leopoldo Bruglia, Mariano Llorens, and Pablo Bertuzzi, who considered that there are sufficient elements to support the hypothesis of a maneuver aimed at diverting resources allocated to the Cooperative of Work 15 de Julio Ltda, within the framework of an agreement made with the former Ministry of Social Development for the production of 165,000 lab coats.
The ruling affects the former officials Leonardo Sebastián Moyano, Osvaldo Eugenio Minervini, who served as director of Community Organization, and Eliana Gisela Gladys Rodríguez, administrative advisor.
It also includes Paula Rosana Goroso, Mirta Lorena Zafra, Yesica Gabriela Goroso, Olga Edith Martínez, Matías Sebastián Celano, Lucas Marcelo Acosta, Marcela Verónica Campanella, Alexis Oscar Lugos, Gladis María Itatí Lugos, and Mario Gustavo Figueroa, linked to the investigated cooperatives.
According to the resolution, the investigated scheme would have operated on two levels. On one hand, through the modification of the acquisition system for the lab coats, which changed from direct contracting to the institutional subsidy modality contemplated in Resolution 208/18, which, according to the Chamber, would have allowed to evade administrative controls and select beneficiaries in a discretionary manner.
The charges had previously been issued by federal judge Sebastián Casanello, who intervened in the case while substituting for federal court No. 11, vacant after the death of its head, Claudio Bonadio.
According to the accusation, those involved would have participated “at least from January 2023 to December 2024, in a complex fraudulent maneuver through which public funds allocated to the ‘Cooperative of Work 15 de Julio LTDA’ were diverted,” within the framework of an agreement with the Ministry of Social Development of the Nation to implement a “Joint Action Social Project.”
The formal objective of the program was the production of lab coats with a dual purpose: to promote productive social work through non-profit non-governmental organizations and to ensure the provision of uniforms to vulnerable sectors.
However, the judicial investigation maintains that behind this scheme, a mechanism for the diversion of public funds would have been structured, a situation that is now supported by the confirmation of the prosecutions by the Federal Chamber.
