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The insurance scandal: traces of an unclear business matrix with friends of Alberto Fernández's government appear in more ministries-Infobae
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El escándalo de los seguros: en más ministerios aparecen rastros de una matriz de negocios poco claros con amigos del gobierno de Alberto Fernández
En la cartera de Defensa revisan los contratos que firmó la gestión anterior tres días antes de dejar el poder. En cada oficina de la nueva administración se buscan ramificaciones de una trama que acumula nombres y una red que la Justicia empezó a investigar como un posible caso de mega corrupción
www.infobae.com
March 03, 2024
In the Defense portfolio they review the contracts that the previous administration signed three days before leaving power. In each office of the new administration, ramifications of a plot that accumulates names and a network that Justice began to investigate as a possible case of mega corruption are sought.
By Facundo Chaves
The insurance scandal. Alberto Pagliano, Héctor Martínez Sosa, Alberto Fernández, Pablo Torres García and Federico D'Angelo
The insurance scandal that broke out last Sunday, with the revelation of a business matrix in which officials and businessmen friends of the previous government participated, added details, names and unexpected ramifications in recent days. In each office of Javier Milei 's administration there is the order to look for evidence and traces of a network of private intermediaries who collected commissions for policies provided by Nación Seguros. The traces of this mechanism, which reached ministries, public organizations and the Armed and Security Forces, began to appear.
These ramifications were detected in the Ministry of Security and are also being investigated in the Ministry of Defense, according to documentation accessed by Infobae . These are news that affect the last president and a businessman who is married to his main secretary, María Cantero . As he did before with his partner, Fabiola Yáñez , in the midst of the scandal over the party in Olivos, and with his friend from his youth and partner in the law firm, Marcelo Losardo , when Kirchnerism pressed for his resignation, Alberto Fernández washed his hands. hands: “I didn't ask for anyone, and if my secretary did, she overstepped her bounds . ”
The truth is that the judicial investigation of these suspicious maneuvers is under Judge Julián Ercolini . The magistrate, whom Fernández mistreated several times in public, is in charge of the case that was initiated by a complaint whose main defendants are the former President, his old friend and María Cantero's husband, Héctor Martínez Sosa , the former head of Insurance Nation, Alberto Pagliano ; and the broker Pablo Torres García , among others. These are some of the names that appeared in the article that Ricardo Roa published in Clarín last Sunday, which uncovered a new “black box of politics.”
The matrix has a long and complex explanation and another summary and understandable for the layman. The Government ordered by decree that all official departments and agencies of the central administration contract their coverage with Nación Seguros. There was Pagliano , who accompanied Fernández since, in the 90s, they went together to the National Insurance Superintendency, during the government of Carlos Menem, and then they set up Provincia Seguros from scratch. It was one side of the counter, that of the State. And in the decree that “created” a captive market, private companies were allowed to participate as producers or co-insurers. Businessmen like Martínez Sosa appear there, whom Fernández has also known since the 90s and with whom he is so familiar that he owes him 20 thousand dollars per year. The other side of the counter, that of the private ones . And, in the middle, the collection of permanent and multimillion-dollar commissions.
In all this there is another novelty. This weekend it was confirmed that Ercolini was also appointed by lottery to pursue another complaint, which Infobae anticipated on Thursday. It is the one presented by the government of Javier Milei against the former operational director of the Anses Sustainability Guarantee Fund (FGS) , Federico D'Angelo Campos . The Government accused this former national official and current councilor of Unión por la Patria of harming the State by allegedly allowing the application of “commissions and intermediation costs in insurance policies contracted at Nación Seguros.”
The complaint is important because it was presented jointly by the Minister of Human Capital, Sandra Pettovello ; the new head of ANSES, Mariano de los Heros , and the director of Nación Seguros, Alfonso José Torres , the three areas involved in the alleged irregularities of the previous administration. In the indictment, the complainants asked that it be determined whether D'Angelo - who as a councilor held his position - "contracted insurance coverage using unjustified intermediaries and paying commissions to the detriment of the public treasury."
The presentation before Justice occurred after the investigations being carried out in the ministries and public organizations revealed that in Nación Seguros "a handwritten note appeared stating the order to hire specific companies to intervene." in life insurance contracts for the balances of credits taken by retirees and pensioners.”
The attention of government officials was drawn to the fact that this note, deliberately, had not been processed by the GEDE, the official communication system used by the Government and where all actions are recorded. “Why did they do this? “What were they hiding?” asked researchers who spoke with Infobae. But, in addition to the form, the government asked to investigate whether D'Angelo “observed that the selection of brokers and insurers carried out by the ANSES Sustainability Guarantee Fund was by hand, in a discretionary, arbitrary manner” and, above all, “without any digital file or technical justification.”
The Defense case
In the Ministry of Defense, headed by Luis Petri, they also investigated and found a trace of this network of influences. An administrative decision caught the attention of officials: the measure was signed on December 7 by Agustín Rossi, as Chief of Staff, and Jorge Taiana , as head of the portfolio. Exactly three days before leaving the government, the administrative decision established in its article 1: “The direct inter-administrative contract No. 340/1-0034-CDI23 is approved for the “MOTORIC INSURANCE COVERAGE FOR THE EMCO, THE EA, THE ARA, THE FAA AND THE SSPOYSLD” with the company NACIÓN SEGUROS SA, in response to the request made by the Purchasing Planning Directorate of the MINISTRY OF DEFENSE.” The abbreviations refer to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Argentine Army, the Argentine Navy and the Air Force.72 hours before the end of their mandate, Rossi and Taiana signed a contract for 803 million pesos, according to the decree that is being investigated by the portfolio's legal department. The measure included in its sixth article the authorization to “approve the extension, extension, reduction, suspension, resolution, termination, declaration of expiration and application of penalties, with respect to the Direct Interadministrative Contracting that is awarded by this act, as well as to sign any other act related to the execution of the contract.” It is an article that, in any case, does not exempt the costs that any alteration of the agreed terms may generate for the State.
The letter from 2022 that designated Diego Savio as producer
These are suspicions that had an immediate impact. In the Navy, with the signature of his boss, Carlos María Allievi, it was decided to cut the link with the producer that Nación Seguros had assigned. In an internal note to which Infobae had access , the rear admiral reported: “In relation to the use of insurance promoters who have contracted for the General Staff of the Navy on behalf of Nación Seguros (...) Mr. Diego SAVIO, provider of the service through Nación Seguros, managed policies on behalf of the GENERAL STAFF OF THE ARMY. These policies expired on 12/31/2023 and were not renewed. I record that I have communicated in writing to the President of Nación Seguros (attached notification signed by the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Navy) and to the aforementioned provider that as of January 10 of this year, it is not authorized to manage any type of insurance policy” with that force. The communication is dated February 29.
The disaffected intermediary producer had been authorized in 2022 to be in charge of "insurance operations and to carry out the administrative and claims procedures that arise from these policies." These are measures that were taken after the scandal broke out and while revelations of alleged irregularities both in the contracts and in the intermediaries appear.
In safety
In the Ministry of Security, before the insurance scandal broke out, they had already distanced themselves from all that indecipherable tangle where intermediary producers intervened. With the signature of Martín Siracusa, Secretary of Coordination of the organization headed by Patricia Bullrich, it had been decided “to annul, as of December 11, the September 2020 designation of the insurance advisory producer Bachellier, as a channel for all types of commercial, administrative management and comprehensive advice regarding the current policies and those that are opportunely contracted by this Ministry.”Furthermore, in that letter, which Infobae accessed , “the designation of a Business Executive belonging to Nación Seguros for the development of commercial actions with this jurisdiction” was requested. As was revealed this week in various media, the “business” involved was, as in the case of the administrative decision that is being investigated in the Ministry of Defense, 800 million pesos. It was not only to provide insurance to Security Forces personnel, but also to members of the Airport Security Police.
Facsimile of the decision signed by Martín Siracusa, from the Ministry of Security
In Siracusa he highlighted that the agreement with Bachellier - which market sources indicate would belong to the Martínez Sosa emporium - had been signed in September 2020. A discretion that dates back to the beginning of the last administration.
Martinez Sosa
At the center of the business is Héctor Martínez Sosa. But also two other important players in the insurance environment: Pablo Torres García, who has oily connections with the PRO, via the businessman and friend of Mauricio Macri's life, Nicolás Caputo . The third is Oscar Castello, from the insurance company Castello Mercuri SA. Around those three, there is a constellation of small producers and insurers that pay taxes to a parent company. In the insurance sector it is common practice to distribute risk.The central place, in any case, goes to Martínez Sosa, with whom Alberto Fernández had a rocky start to Provincia Seguros. Pagliano was also on that adventure. They are the former president's lifelong friends, although in his latest public statements he stated that he has no contact with any of them. From the previous step in the Menemist Insurance Superintendency, the leader of PJ Capital knew that creating a State insurer created a formidable business due to its captive market and because the State never goes bankrupt. The assets, human resources and actions of the State are susceptible to being securitized. If done well, it can generate dividends for the government in question. If intermediaries are authorized, the business is for others.
In another investigation by Ricardo Roa that Clarín published today, it was revealed that Alberto Fernández bought the Vanguardia company from Martínez Sosa in that early nineties. With that company and the experience gained in the 1990s Superintendency, he started the Banco Provincia insurance company, which continues to operate to this day.
Martínez Sosa keeps a low profile and has not yet decided to give his version of events to the media. Unusual behavior. Advertising posters can still be seen on Lugones Avenue with his brand. Just as it appears on the sides of Agustín Canapino's car, the driver who races in the Indy formula, which is popular in the United States, like Nascar and F1. He has been accompanying the pilot since he was racing in TC. The thing is that Martínez Sosa, too, is a “fierrero”. It is still not clear if he had anything to do with the fact that Alberto Fernández's government paid the pilot almost 400 thousand dollars in sponsorship for the “Visit Argentina” brand, as La Nación revealed last week.
International fame. Martínez Sosa's brand on the Canapino car that runs in the Indy formula, the most popular in the US
The investigators who are following the roles of this “business” told Infobae that Torres García participated in several of these intermediations. He linked it to Sergio Massa, who for now remains silent and does not even want to hear about this whole scandal. With his endorsement, deputy Ramiro Gutiérrez published a suggestive tweet: “Ojo Torres García is not a friend of Sergio Massa by any means; He met him several years ago through Diego Santilli and Bruno Screnci at a meal. He saw him again on January 1, 2016 at a party in Pinamar invited by Cristian Ritondo and Federico Salvai. The message is still published on the X network.
The last data. In the report made by Infobae on the accountability of 2019 campaign expenses, when Alberto Fernández beat Macri, the largest business contribution was $1 million and was made by Castello Mercuri SA , an insurance broker with offices in Madero Port. When asked by Infobae at that time, Alberto Fernández's campaign command responded: "We checked it as we do with all donors, at the Central Bank and at Nosis, and we did not find any stain."
