Argentina's Macri revealed to be a business partner of disgraced contractor Odebrecht since 1998 [View all]
An investigation published in the Buenos Aires daily Página/12 revealed that Argentine President Mauricio Macri is a partner of the disgraced Brazilian construction company Odebrecht through the investment fund Blackwood Group.
The fund was created in 1998, when Macri was executive vice president of the family holding company Sociedades Macrì (Socma).
"Since 1998, when Mauricio Macri was its executive vice president, Sideco Americana has been a partner of Odebrecht in the Blackwood Group," Página/12 senior writer Horacio Verbitsky said. "They are involved in businesses as diverse as energy, construction, oil and gas, consulting, mining, finance, and mergers and acquisitions, with interests in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, North America, and Latin America."
The Blackwood Group, registered in an unspecified offshore tax haven was never declared in Macri's financial disclosures, as required by Argentine law. Its entire client portfolio, besides Odebrecht, were part of the Macri Group.
The partnership, according to the report, was also used by Macri to lessen his family's liabilities dating from their control of the Argentine Postal Service from 1997 to 2003. "The Antigua & Barbuda branch of Austria's Meinl Bank bought $400 million worth of IDB and World Bank loans to the Argentine Post during the Macri era for $8 million and then impeded efforts to collect said debt."
Meinl Bank's Antigua and Barbuda headquarters was also used by Odebrecht to deposit over $1.6 billion in bribes to officials and influential individuals in 12 countries through 40 shell companies. CEO Marcelo Odebrecht is currently serving a 19-year prison sentence for his role in the Lava Jato scheme.
Macri came under fire last February for using his office to write off at least $230 million owed by his family to the Postal Service. The resulting uproar forced Macri to backtrack; but the case remains stalled in the courts.
The Open Corporates and Panama Papers revelations published in April 2016 have linked the Macri family to at least 50 offshore accounts, most of which were undeclared to local authorities.
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