Cristina's asset auction has begun after the deadline to return the stolen goods expired

Argentine justice began this Wednesday, June 25, the auction of 26 assets belonging to the corrupt former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, after the 10-business-day deadline granted to those convicted to return the money stolen from the State in the Vialidad case expired.

This measure comes after the confirmation of the six-year prison sentence against the former president for the misappropriation of public works during her terms.

Federal Oral Court 2 had ordered in recent days the update of the amount to be returned, which could reach 500 million dollars. Once the report from the Supreme Court's Appraisal Experts Body was completed, which recalculated the forfeiture originally set at 84 billion pesos (185 million pounds) in 2022, the stage of enforcement through public auction has now begun. This is an unprecedented offensive against the personal and family assets of the convicted former president.

The assets to be auctioned

In this first phase, the call for auction of some of the most emblematic assets has already been published: properties in Puerto Madero (including the units and parking spaces of the Madero Center complex), apartments in Recoleta, cars, ranches in Santa Cruz, hotels in El Calafate, and properties registered under the name of Los Sauces S.A., the Kirchner family's real estate company also involved in another case for alleged money laundering.

The list also includes the apartment where Cristina Kirchner is serving her house arrest and more than USD 5.6 million that Florencia Kirchner kept in a safe deposit box, the origin of which is still under investigation. Added to this are two high-end vehicles and several properties transferred as part of an early inheritance to her children.

The enforcement also extends to the assets of businessman Lázaro Báez, convicted in the same case, whose properties and construction companies (such as Austral Construcciones and Gotti SA) are ready to be liquidated.

Among Báez's assets, 132 properties in Santa Cruz and 37 in the City of Buenos Aires stand out, as well as historic ranches such as Cruz Aike, Río Olnie, and El Rincón, where excavations were once carried out in search of buried money.

Prosecutor Diego Luciani, who led the case, recalled that the diverted funds could have been allocated to health, education, or infrastructure, and emphasized that the goal of this stage is to recover for the State part of the illegally accumulated assets. With the auction already underway, the justice system expects to recover a significant portion of what was defrauded and set a precedent in the field of structural corruption.