Pharmaceutical businessman and Kirchnerist activist Ariel García Furfaro was indicted by the courts in a case involving aggravated smuggling and document forgery through his company HLB Pharma Group SA.
The ruling also included his mother, Nilda Furfaro, and his 90-year-old grandmother, Olga Luisa Arena, who were listed as alternate presidents of the company.
The case, which is being processed in Economic Criminal Court No. 2, presided over by Pablo Yadarola, is complemented by the parallel investigation of federal judge in La Plata, Ernesto Kreplak, regarding the production of adulterated fentanyl that allegedly caused the deaths of several patients.
According to the accusation, García Furfaro carried out transactions with China in which he declared false amounts to Customs. Through HLB Pharma and Alpharma, he imported machinery for the production of medicines for a declared value of USD 5 million, when the actual amount was USD 500,000. For investigators, this was a scheme of "over-invoicing of imports and commercial transactions with China for which he declared a false amount to Customs".
The businessman justified the participation of his mother and grandmother on the board of HLB Pharma by stating that "he was going through a complicated divorce and didn't have trustworthy people to appoint". The courts, however, determined that both assumed formal positions without having participated in management. The case file notes that, at the time batch 31202 of fentanyl was produced—on December 18, 2024—, the company's president was Arena, who "never made any decisions nor was she seen at her grandson's pharmaceutical manufacturing plant".
