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.
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.
