The Federal Criminal Cassation Chamber confirmed a severe judicial blow against Cristina Fernández de Kirchner by rejecting her defense's latest attempt to halt the seizure of her assets in the Vialidad case. The country's highest criminal court endorsed the continuation of the process in Comodoro Py and confirmed that the assets of the former president and businessman Lázaro Báez must be seized until the amount of $684.99 billion is covered, the updated sum of the damage caused to the State.
The ruling, signed by judges Gustavo Hornos, Mariano Borinsky, and Diego Barroetaveña, dismissed the arguments of the defenses that sought to transfer the asset seizure to the civil jurisdiction. This way, Federal Oral Court No. 2, which convicted the former president of fraudulent administration, will remain in charge of the forfeiture proceedings.
Jueces firmantes.
The judges recalled that forfeiture "is a criminal consequence of the conviction and not a civil action," emphasizing that its purpose is to deprive those responsible of the economic effects of the crime and to recover for the community the assets obtained illicitly. According to the ruling, the measure seeks to restore the social balance undermined by a corruption structure entrenched in the state apparatus between 2003 and 2015.
Prosecutor Mario Villar had requested that the process not be delayed any further, warning that the convicted individuals, including Cristina Kirchner, Báez, José López, and Nelson Periotti, have not deposited a single peso in the judicial account opened for the payment of the established amount.
According to the Supreme Court's accounting experts, the economic damage to the State was initially estimated at $85.00 billion, but updated to present values, it amounts to nearly $685.00 billion. The amount must be jointly covered by all those convicted. In its decision, Chamber IV emphasized that forfeiture "has become an indispensable instrument for eradicating the looting structures entrenched in the State," and reaffirmed that ill-gotten assets must be returned to the public treasury.
Con los dedos en V.
The ruling also highlights the exemplary nature of the process: "Criminal law must recover assets from the public treasury that were improperly appropriated in order to restore the social balance that was undermined," the judges stated. The decision thus consolidates the criminal nature of the forfeiture and reaffirms the jurisdiction of TOF No. 2 to enforce the sentence.
Kirchnerism had sought for months to postpone the enforcement under the argument of an alleged "judicial persecution," but Cassation definitively closed that door. The decision carries not only legal weight, but also symbolic and political significance, as it sends a message that corruption in power has concrete and financial consequences.
