Latin America
Related: About this forumMacri cousins, top public works beneficiaries, buy bank based in Buenos Aires and the Cayman Islands
The Central Bank of Argentina approved the purchase of an inactive offshore bank by the brothers Ángelo and Fabio Calcaterra, first cousins of Argentine President Mauricio Macri.
Banco Interfinanzas, based in Buenos Aires and the Cayman Islands, has but one private office in each location and no branches. The purchase price - $27 million - was reportedly twice its appraised book value.
Originally opened in 1976 as an investment banking subsidiary of the defunct Austrian bank Creditanstalt, Interfinanzas' extensive use of offshoring in the Caymans, Panama, and Uruguay was mentioned in congressional hearings as early as 2001. Its collapse 2002 affected 570 individual and 19 institutional investors in Argentina, and following a spate of lawsuits it ceased operations in 2011.
A previous attempt by the Calcaterras to seize Interfinanzas in 2015 was nixed by the nation's Money Laundering Prosecutors Office (PROCELAC) following a complaint filed by Solicitor General Alejandra Gils Carbó - whom the Macri administration has been trying to remove.
The application was approved by the Central Bank on December 6 only after its president, Federico Sturzenegger, lifted a year-old sanction against Ángelo Calcaterra for import finance violations worth $16 million.
Sturzenegger lifted the sanctions just days after being confirmed as Central Bank President by the Senate; he was appointed by Macri a year ago by decree.
Poor cousins
The Calcaterras and their partner in the venture, Fernando Mauro, are now legally obligated to capitalize the bank with at least $5 million within a month of taking control. Their Central Bank affidavit declared that the proceeds will originate in sales of local real estate and of "overseas investments."
Congresswoman Gabriela Cerruti, however, warns that the bank will instead be used to launder proceeds from massive federal public works contracts awarded by President Macri to his cousins' construction firms, IECSA, ODS, and Creaurban.
After transferring nominal ownership of these firms to their "poor cousins" the Calcaterras in 2007, the group's public contracts portfolio reached $1.8 billion while Macri was Mayor of Buenos Aires - making them Argentina's third largest public contractor. A further $3 billion in federal contracts have been awarded to IECSA since Macri took office as President a year ago.
President Macri was one of just five current world leaders named in the Panama Papers scandal this April, and 30 undeclared offshore accounts have since been found in his name of his family's.
At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nuestrasvoces.com.ar%2Finvestigaciones%2Ffavor-favor-se-paga%2F
Judi Lynn
(160,211 posts)as a successful crook while mayor of Buenos Aires. He's apparently developed a very powerful support system.
And to think his "daddy" amassed property, etc., in New York at the same time Trump, Sr. was sucking up everything in sight.
[center]
Seal - I've Been Loving You Too Long
Or is it, "Macri - "I've been Trumping You Too Long"?" [/center]
So glad to see your post, tenorly! Thank you.
Judi Lynn
(160,211 posts)[center]
Ángelo Calcaterra
(They look like ghosts haunting construction sites!)
Ángelo Calcaterra, on the gravy train.[/center]
They seem obsessed with money, don't they? It makes them look insane.