Properties worth $150 million have been seized, linked to the former secretary of Néstor Kirchner

In a new operation that exposes the dark financial architecture of Kirchnerism, the Financial Information Unit (UIF), led by Paul Starc, managed to seize luxury properties worth more than 150 million pesos (330,693 pounds). The assets were directly linked to Daniel Muñoz, the former private secretary of Néstor Kirchner, who is considered by the judiciary as a key cog in the money laundering apparatus of K corruption.

The seizure, authorized by the judiciary, included an apartment located in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Villa Urquiza. The property was acquired with illicit funds and is part of a complex network of investments used to conceal the origin of money looted from the State for years. According to the UIF, this was the first early seizure carried out by the agency, a legal tool that allows the confiscation of assets before a final conviction exists, in line with international recommendations from FATF.

"The goal is to prevent the assets from disappearing, changing hands, or being reintegrated into criminal circuits during the judicial process," explained Starc. With this action, the State recovers part of the illegal assets accumulated by officials linked to Kirchnerism during their years in power. "Recovering assets from corruption is as important as convicting," emphasized the head of the UIF. "This is money that must return to serve society and not remain in the hands of criminal structures."

Muñoz, who was an absolutely trusted figure of former president Néstor Kirchner, amassed a multimillion-dollar fortune while serving as his private secretary. In April 2016, the Panama Papers revealed that Muñoz and his wife, Carolina Pochetti, were owners of an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands. The scandal triggered by that leak marked the beginning of the collapse of a financial scheme that operated with impunity during Kirchnerist governments.

The dirty money trail began in the United States, where the couple acquired properties in New York and Miami with illegal funds. Subsequently, those properties were sold and the money redirected to new assets. Part of those funds returned to Argentina in the form of real estate investments, while at least 30 million dollars were allocated to a phantom tourism project in the Turks and Caicos Islands, north of the Caribbean, which was never completed.

In 2022, by order of the Argentine judiciary, four plots in that tax haven were frozen. Investigators estimate that a multimillion-dollar sum could still be recovered, with amounts estimated at around 30 million dollars.

The UIF emphasized that the seized assets reflect the level of sophistication achieved by the operation designed by Muñoz, who died on May 25, 2016 as a result of aggressive cancer, just a month and a half after the publication of the Panama Papers.