Alzheimer’s Diagnosis Leads to Dismissal of Bribery Case Against IMPSA Executive Enrique Pescarmona
A key case in Argentina’s sprawling “Bribery Notebooks” scandal took a dramatic turn Thursday with the dismissal of charges against businessman Enrique Pescarmona, 84, due to a diagnosis of alzheimer’s disease. The decision by He Oral Court Number 7 effectively halts Pescarmona’s participation in the judicial process, citing his inability to adequately understand the accusations and mount a defense.
Why did this happen? The charges against Pescarmona were dismissed because of his recently diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease, rendering him incapable of understanding the legal proceedings and assisting in his defense. Who is involved? enrique Pescarmona, an 84-year-old businessman and executive at IMPSA, was the defendant whose case was dismissed. Key figures also include prosecutor Fabiana León, former officials Walter Fagyas and José López, and former presidents Cristina and Néstor Kirchner. What occurred? the dismissal effectively ends Pescarmona’s involvement in the “Bribery Notebooks” case, a major investigation into alleged corruption during the kirchner administrations.
Pescarmona had previously offered himself as a collaborating witness in the case, admitting to improper payments totaling at least $700,000 to former officials. The dismissal occurred during the third hearing of the trial,conducted largely via zoom with over 80 defendants participating. The hearing continued with the review of releases granted to other businessmen and statements from those leveraging the accused collaborator regime. Several businessmen challenged the accusations leveled against them, dismissing the notes compiled by driver Oscar Centeno – the source of the initial investigation – as “fantastical.” Others recharacterized payments as “voluntary contributions” to electoral campaigns.
Testimony revealed varying accounts of events.Former official Walter Fagyas acknowledged frequent travel with Centeno and carrying backpacks,but denied they contained money. Hugo dragonetti, a businessman from the Panedile firm, identified discrepancies in the charges, correcting details regarding delivery locations and amounts. He clarified that a 2010 payment occurred in the second basement of a garage,not the first,and specified payments of $35,000,$100,000,and $200,000.
The hearing also included the reading of a statement from José López,the former Secretary of Public Works,who described a system of collecting funds orchestrated by julio De Vido. López recounted a meeting with cristina Fernández de Kirchner following the death of Néstor Kirchner, where she presented him with the former president’s notebooks and warned him he could be “part of the problem or the solution.” He stated, “I told Cristina everything, that there was a collection system with the road works.” López further explained the circumstances surrounding the bags of money he transported to a convent in General Rodríguez in 2016, attributing the funds to Fabián Gutiérrez, a former secretary to the Kirchners, whom he identified as acting on behalf of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner: “Fabián was Cristina.”
Prior to the hearing, Cristina Kirchner publicly questioned the validity of Centeno’s writings on social media, labeling them “tricks.” Prosecutor León maintains that the illegal collection system operated solely at Kirchner’s direction,with evidence indicating funds were primarily delivered to addresses associated with both Cristina Fernández and Néstor Kirchner
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