Panama Papers: Argentina's Macri to put assets in blind trust to "dispel doubts."

[forest444]

Argentine President Mauricio Macri said he will put all his assets in a blind trust to help reassure critics after recent leaks showed he was named a director of two companies listed in Panama.

A civil court will hear a petition to certify his declaration of assets on Friday, he said in a speech at the presidential palace on Thursday. “I have nothing to hide,” he said. “I am ready for any other judge that may require information about what I am saying. I want there to be no doubts.”

Since being named in a widespread leak of documents about shell companies known as the Panama Papers, Macri’s government has defended his reputation as he seeks to consolidate power and carry out a series of economic reforms in Argentina four months after taking office. Macri has denied any wrongdoing, saying the shell company Fleg Trading Ltd. was legal and created with funds by his father, who appointed him as a director.

On Thursday, prosecutor Federico Delgado said that there are sufficient grounds to begin a probe after Macri was formally accused by opposition Congressman Norman Martínez. Macri will be investigated for tax irregularities for his participation as director in Fleg Trading and a second firm, Kagemusha SA, Delgado said in an interview on Radio Continental. The information about Macri was originally published Sunday in a leak of documents from a Panamanian law firm that helped people and companies set up companies offshore.

“We want to determine if President Macri omitted his participation in his tax declarations before the tax agency and before the Anti-Corruption Office and then to determine whether that omission was malicious and if he should have included it,” Delgado said.

Fleg Trading was created in 1998 to invest in Brazil and was dissolved in 2008 "without ever having operated," Macri told Canal C. Asked about the alleged existence of a second company known as Kagemusha, Cabinet Chief Marcos Peña didn’t confirm or deny the existence of the company; but reiterated that Macri has nothing to hide.

Numerous other Macri administration officials and close associates were also discovered to taken part in the leaked Panama offshore schemes, including Boca Juniors football club President Daniel Angelici, Human Rights Secretary Claudio Avruj, Lanús Mayor Néstor Grindetti, Congressman Daniel Ivoskus, Vicente López Mayor Jorge Macri (his cousin), and Francisco Macri (his father).

At: http://washpost.bloomberg.com/Story?docId=1376-O59VI76JTSEG01-7IJDPJ0LEF8OFH9QVN2C791ABA
_________________________________________

Politicians of all nations and stripes and long resorted to blind trusts as a favorite legal gimmick by which they can give voters the "impression" they won't profit from their posts.

Some of the best known such cases here in the U.S. include Obama, LBJ, Ted Kennedy, Mitt Romney, and of course George H.W. Bush, who placed his inherited UBC proceeds (the Nazi money laundry) in a blind trust when Reagan won in 1980. The trust was managed by his old friend, William Farish III, who was president of Standard Oil of New Jersey when it invested millions in IG Farben (the makers of Xyklon B).

[ZackH]

1. Question about Political Climate of Argentina

Last edited Fri Apr 8, 2016, 07:37 PM - Edit history (2)

I know that I posted about a song my wife from Argentina had performed on Ted Talks. She specifically wrote about issues of censorship in her country and about a popular announcer who was removed from radio after 30 years because of his political views. The song I thought was pretty good and got a warm reception at the TED event. However, when I decided to post it in an Argentina Reddit page all hell broke loose with people saying she didn't know what she was talking about, etc. Then, she made a reddit account to reply to that criticism. After that her posts appeared to just "disappear" from the page. Now my post appears to have been deleted from Reddit (Reddit just takes the page off of the front of the site list when it gets deleted and can still be viewed just so you're wondering about the link).

You can view this thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/argentina/comments/4dm6k7/tango_acerca_de_mauricio_macri_en_ted_talks_que/

Does he have this much rabid support from people that they're willing to just censor out opposing viewpoints to this extreme or is this just a really weird exception on the Reddit? Just wondering how much support he has.

[forest444]

2. Same old right-wing astroturf, Zach. They went postal because your wife just blew them away.

Macri, who was Mayor of Buenos Aires for 8 years until his narrow election to the Presidency last November, was well known for his authoritarian (sometimes illegal) brand of gutter politics - including the use of hundreds of paid internet trolls.

These mostly worked out of a Brown Shirt-esque "Special Projects Unit" led by Paula Uhalde. Millions more in vaguely-worded city contracts have gone to media hacks such as Fernando Niembro and Luis Majul, the latter becoming especially notorious for his "anonymous source" hit pieces alleging corruption on the part of Macri's left-wing predecessor (again, while himself collecting millions in taxpayer pesos to do so).

They mostly plague Argentine news site comment boards, although recently they've been showing up on English language sites as well. Right-wing outfits from several other Latin American countries have done likewise (including, quite possibly, here on DU).

We know Paul Singer (the Cayman Islands vulture fundie who's demanding $3 billion on old defaulted bonds he purchased for $48 million) bankrolled some of this - mainly through a "non-profit" run by the Michelle Bachmann of Argentina, Congresswoman Laura Alonso.

As it happens Alonso was then named head of the Federal Anticorruption Office by Macri, and is now on full damage control mode over her boss' Panama Papers revelations (the very thing that she's entrusted to prevent and prosecute). Not that it did him any good. Her bumbling rationalization probably did as much political harm as the Panama Papers themselves.

At any rate, thank you for sharing that very intriguing anecdote, Zach. Their unhinged, childish reaction to your wife only shows them up for what they are.

Qué será.

[ZackH]

3. I Notice that that Reddit does Not Have a Lot of Info on Current Protests, Firings, Etc.

So basically they took over the Reddit and they've been potentially hired by the presidency?

[forest444]

4. Not all of them, I'm sure. But that's been their M.O. in the past, yes.

And if they maintained as many trolls as they did with the City of Buenos Aires' $9 billion budget, I can only imagine what they must be doing with Argentina's $200 billion budget (plus contributions from outside groups such as Singer and Argentine right-wing and business lobbies).

Great work by the Athens Tango Project, by the way! The tune was composed in a genre known as Milonga, a predecessor of the Tango that flourished in the late 19th century. I'll post it here, if you don't mind. Thanks again!