In yet another demonstration of the national government's commitment to transparency and the end of unjustified privileges, the Ministry of Human Capital, in coordination with ANSES, filed a lawsuit against former Vice President Amado Boudou to recover more than 236 million pesos (520,236 pounds) that he improperly received as a privileged pension, despite having been convicted of corruption offenses during his time in public office.
"Granting a lifetime monthly allowance to someone who has been declared criminally responsible for the offenses of passive bribery and negotiations incompatible with public office is not only a legal contradiction, but also an affront to honest citizens who sustain the pension system," stated the official release issued by the Ministry of Human Capital.
Amado Boudou.
The legal claim demands that Boudou return $236,066,031.25 (520,236 pounds), plus the corresponding interest and adjustments, for payments he received while benefiting from a special pension, even though the judiciary found him guilty of corruption in the Ciccone case. That sentence, upheld by higher courts, left him with no legal or ethical grounds to continue receiving sums from the public treasury.
It is worth recalling that Boudou was a central figure during Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's second term, who currently faces multiple indictments for cases related to the illicit management of public funds. The case of the former vice president is not an isolated incident, but part of a network of exceptional benefits that Kirchnerism granted to its officials, even after they had been convicted.
Amado Boudeu.
However, the most significant impact came from the Supreme Court of Justice, which on Tuesday upheld the conviction against former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in the Vialidad case, marking an institutional milestone: the former president must return to the State more than 84,000 million pesos (185,188,679 pounds).
The decision of the highest court confirms the sentence of the Federal Oral Court No. 2 of 2022 and its subsequent ratification by the Criminal Cassation Chamber. The ruling not only establishes six years of imprisonment and permanent disqualification from holding public office, but also orders the historic forfeiture of $84,000 million (185,188,679 pounds), equivalent to the embezzlement proven through the fraudulent awarding of public works contracts to companies owned by Lázaro Báez, especially in the province of Santa Cruz.
The multimillion amount that Cristina Kirchner must pay as a result of her conviction is calculated based on rigged tenders, advance payments, overpricing, and unfinished works, all under her direct administrative and political responsibility. The former president intervened through decrees such as PEN No. 54/2009, which allowed the discretionary use of road trust funds to benefit Austral Construcciones.
The Court, with the signatures of judges Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz, and Ricardo Lorenzetti, considered that the defense's arguments failed to undermine the compelling evidence. Cristina Kirchner was found guilty as a co-perpetrator of aggravated fraudulent administration, and the sentence now becomes enforceable, marking a point of no return in the accountability of former Kirchnerist officials.
