This Monday the journalist Hugo Alconada Mon published in the newspaper The Nation information that, once again, leaves the “anti-caste” discourse of the Hermanos government in a very bad light. mercy. According to the article“the head of the General Tax Directorate (DGI), Andrés Edgardo Vázquezbought through foreign companies three properties in USA for more than 2 million dollars that he never recorded – neither the companies nor the properties – in his sworn statements before the Anti-Corruption Office (OA)”.
The data arises from accounting, corporate and banking documents that the journalist analyzed as part of the Latin American Center for Journalistic Research (CLIP), with the support of International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJin English).
It is worth remembering that last week the CLIP and the ICIJ They also accompanied a complaint from the journalist Emilia Delfino of ElDiarioAr which left the head of the Deputies block and president of the Buenos Aires section of the PRO, Cristian Ritondofor also having departments in Miami undeclared. Ritondo It is a central ally of the Mileist government.
Alconcada Mon account in The Nation that the owner of the DGI (64 years old) has set up a network of companies in recent years offshore based in Panama and the British Virgin Islands. With that structure, he bought apartments in USA for some US$ 2 millionwhich in turn did not declare before the Anti-Corruption Office nor before the AFIP. In the discovered documentation the signatures and data of Vazquez and a good part of his family.
With more than three decades of career in the national collection area, Vázquez was appointed last October as head of the DGI from the reorganization of the organization by the Government, which included the change of name of the AFIP by ARCA (Customs Collection and Control Agency). It is assumed that Vazquez It is since then the highest authority to “combat” tax evasion by individuals, companies and other organizations.
For at least twelve years the official has shareholding in a network of firms which he acquired in USA at least three departments (one was later sold again). The signatures offshore “are still active” and include “a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) which is controlling of two other companies incorporated in Panamawhich in turn served as a vehicle to acquire ownership of the properties located in Miami”.
Between 2015 and 2016 Vazquez and his family joined the “companies” as shareholders Panchy Ventures Limited y Galanthus Capital Limited both based in the Virgin Islands. But the purchase of real estate on US land dates back much earlier, at least since January 2013, during the Kirchnerist government. So Vazquez bought two properties in Miamiregistered in the name of Alcorta Corp to which a third was added in 2015 through Pompeya Group Corp “as recorded in the available official records of Miami-Dade County,” says the investigation of The Nation.
One of the apartments is located in the luxurious complex Icon Brickell (495 Brickell Avenue) with a value of U$S 710 mil. Another at 1060 Brickell Avenue, valued at U$S 350 mil. And the third in the Chateau Beach Residences from Sunny Isles, at a cost of U$S 980 mil. According to Alconada Monafter the publication of the Panama Papers in 2016, “Vazquez inserted one more link of distance between him and the properties in USA. He turned to Galanthus Capital Limited which remained as the holding company, controlling the Panamanian companies Alcorta Corp y Pompeya Group Corp .
After selling one of the properties, “Vazquez remained linked to the firm Galanthus Capital ”, which continued to be the owner of the other two apartments, which add up to a real estate valuation of around US$ 1.7 million. “This continues to this day, according to the documentation analyzed.”
In addition to demonstrating the level of wealth that officials such as Vazquezexponents of a caste with which mercy and company feel very comfortable, it is scandalous that the current holder of the DGI has not even declared those properties before the Anti-Corruption Office. something to which is obligated for his position in a state position of such magnitude.
The Public Ethics Law (in force since 1999) requires national officials to present to the OA an affidavit with “all of your real and personal property and equity interests (including those of your spouse).” Something that must be updated every year. Hiding assets and not updating the database can be considered crime of “malicious omission” (article 268 of the Penal Code), which provides for penalties of various prison terms and perpetual disqualification to hold public office.
In his 2023 affidavit, the last available, Vazquez stated that he has some ten properties in Argentina (apartments, garages and a house in a country), all bought with “inheritances” and “donations”plus a saving of $10.5 million in cash y three accounts in US banks that gather just a few U$S 3 mil. But it says nothing about the departments in Miami which, at the current dollar rate, are calculated at more than $2 billion.
With what authority can a guy like this guarantee that he will pursue and control businessmen who flee capital and other important evaders at the national level?
Alcanconada Mon He says that he tried to communicate with the official, who has a 35-year career in the oversight body and without any verifiable private activity that would allow him to have amassed fortunes like the ones he spends. The journalist did so in writing and by telephone, seeking to have his version of the events. But Vázquez never responded.
old foxes
And in turn Alconada Mon He remembers that in 2011 he himself had already investigated the heritage of Vazquezwhen this was one of the bishops of Ricardo Echegaraythe boss of the AFIP during the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. There he managed to establish that the current head of the DGI He had bank accounts in the Caribbean and in Europa with more than U$S 500 mil.
Everything had arisen after a mega-operation of the AFIP in the offices of the Clarín Group at that time in “war” against the Kirchnerist government. The inspection with some 200 agency agents made international news and Echegaray He tried to escape by blaming Vazquez of such an “abuse”, since he is the one who had led the operation.
According to account Alconada Mon, Echegaray he asked CFRP that he would throw out Vazquez The foam of the case went down quickly like this, but from the Pink House They refused, arguing that the then head of the South Metropolitan Regional He was “the man of Larcher (and of Stiuso) in the AFIP“, that is, of the highest references of the Intelligence Secretariat during Kirchnerism.
The journalist of The Nation remember that, between 2000 and 2009, Vazquez did not declare before the OA and the AFIP have bank accounts on the Caribbean island (Dutch colony) of Curacao and in the small European state of Luxembourg. That is why a criminal case was opened in a Buenos Aires criminal court, in charge of the judge Osvaldo Rappa. The magistrate sent the file to Commodore Pysince for him it warranted a “federal” investigation given his status as a public official.
In the federal courts of Withdrawal The judge took the case first Sergio Torreshead of Federal Court 12. But after assuming this as a member of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Province of Buenos Aires and his court was “momentarily” (until today) subrogated by the judge Ariel Foodnow a candidate for Supreme Court national at the proposal of mercy. Food did not directly investigate Vazquez and in 2022 it ended dismissing it.
Alconada Mon states that “on November 17, 2022, Food dismissed Vazquez and his sister faced with the ‘impossibility’ of moving forward with the investigation. In other words, not because it has been proven that Vazquez did not have those bank accounts, but due to the reluctance of the authorities of Curacao, Netherlands and of Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to respond to Argentine exhortations.” And he adds that “a year after the ruling that dismissed him in Argentina, Vazquez declared a broad list of assets in the country and abroad, in his last available sworn statement, corresponding to 2023.”
In that last affidavit, Vazquez acknowledges having three companies in Argentina: More More SA , DVQP Sport SA y Consulting San Andrés SA . He shares a partnership with his sister, who also appeared as the owner of the bank accounts of Curacao y Luxemburgo.
Vazquezhe great evader specialized in countless financial maneuvers in tax havenstoday is the spearhead of the government of Freedom Advances on collection and tax issues. Perhaps, when it came to electing him at the head of the DGIthe brothers mercy have valued his career in the area of “tax intelligence” of the former AFIP and his achievements as director of the “South Metropolitan Regional”.
In fact, in October it was the President himself who defended his appointment, despite the differences that some of his officials had. The decree that placed him in office, for example, does not bear the signatures of even the Chief of Staff. Guillermo Francosnor the Minister of Economy Luis Caputo nor of the then director of the AFIP Florence Misrahi (shortly replaced by Juan Pazoanother with properties in USA). The only one who signed the decree together with mercy was the Minister of Security Patricia Bullrich.
It’s been a while since the speech “anti-caste” of mercy and his henchmen has been buried under the thousand and one maneuvers of the Government to favor, precisely, several of the exponents of the privileged sectors of bourgeois politics, the business community, the judicial functionary, the religious hierarchies, the union leaders and the media “envelopes”. He “kueider-gate” It was his last great chapter.
The revelations about the maneuvers of evasion and fraud to the State coffers by those who must, formally, detect, pursue and sanction them, are nothing more than another cuddly kitty stain of power. As the left says and millions of people already confirm, more “caste” is not achieved.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
