insurralde

The Insurralde scandal

The cabinet chief of Buenos Aires province, Martin Insurralde, resigned on Saturday after his girlfriend posted pictures on Instagram of their luxury holiday on board a yacht off Marbella, Spain. Sofia Clerici also posted pictures of gifts that Insurralde had given her including a Rolex watch, jewellery and top of the range handbags. The scandal is exacerbated by the fact that Insurralde represents one of the poorest areas of the province, La Matanza, with 40% of Argentina below the poverty line.

Provincial governor, Axel Kicillof, has tried to play down the scandal, brushing it aside as nothing more than an ethical error. However, Insurralde will have trouble justifying these expenses on a public employee’s salary, not to mention his US$20m settlement with his ex-wife, Jessica Cirio earlier this year.

Cases against for money laundering are now being presented.

Fake employees in La Plata

A man known as ‘Chocolate’ Rigau has been withdrawing cash with 48 debit cards from phantom employee bank accounts, often up to AR$1m per day and AR$30 per month in yet another corruption expose. Rigau is said to be an electrician, but no one has even see him change a light bulb.

Banco Nacion hired a ‘numbers energy creator’

Silvina Batakis, the head of Banco Nacion, a state owned bank, hired an numerologist, “Pitty”, la Numeróloga, for thousands of pesos per month, her ex husband for similar amounts and numerous other people either related distantly or friends, for thousands of dollars per month for doing nothing.

This is the extent of the endemic corruption that is so rife and practically socially and culturally accepted in Argentina over decades.