Niembro case (Argentina): La Usina PR firm and Macri's Buenos Aires city government offices raided.
Five raids have been carried out in the last hours after an order issued by prosecutor Carlos Velarde, who is in charge of the investigation into alleged irregularities in contracts signed between the Buenos Aires City Government and a company owned by PRO/"Let's Change" congressional candidate and sportscaster Fernando Niembro. The raids were conducted at city government offices and at Niembro's La Usina production company.
Attorney Antonio Liurgo today confirmed the lawsuit he had filed days ago against Mayor Mauricio Macri and sportscaster Fernando Niembro. Mayor Macri is currently running for president on the same right-wing PRO/"Let's Change" ticket.
Niembro's legal situation became even more complicated when the AFIP tax agency informed that his production company, La Usina, has no registered employees and owes a tax debt of more than 20,000 pesos. Despite this, La Usina has since 2013 provided the City Administration with advertising services for 21 million pesos ($2.3 million).
A second contract signed with the Bank of City of Buenos Aires, the municipally-owned bank headed by former PRO councilman Rogelio Frigerio, jr., surpassed 1 million pesos ($110,000) and consisted in placing ads in Fox Sports, where Niembro worked as a longtime sportscaster until his candidacy was launched.
Last week, reports indicated Niembro lied about the date he dissociated himself from La Usina. He assured he left the company in March, 2014, when he decided to become more fully involved in politics. An investigation by local news daily Tiempo Argentino revealed that happened eight months later, however.
At: http://buenosairesherald.com/article/198210/niembro-case-la-usina-and-city-government-offices-raided
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And this is just the tip of the iceberg where Macri's contracts concerned, because his administration spends 10 times as much on political ads and PR -about $80 million a year at taxpayer expense- as it does on school and hospital repairs (a municipal mandate).
Similarly, much of the $500 million a year his administration spends on outsourced services goes to his relatives (the Macris and Calcaterras built their fortune largely on padded public contracts) or to close friends of theirs (the Caputos, Cartellones, Plazas, and Roggios among others). Macri's policy and privatizing and outsourcing services the city once provided directly has led to a five-fold increase in Buenos Aires' municipal debt load to $2.5 billion; Buenos Aires was one of the few great cities of the world with almost no debt until he took office.
The City Council passed a Transparency Law in 2013 (over Macri's veto) to make details of all such contracts public - a law he mostly disregards. This Niembro scandal is instant karma, I guess.
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Sad to realize right-wingers often have so many ties with the remaining power structure people they can get things done to protect them. Teflon criminals.
Funny that this episode involves a right-winger candidate who was also a blow-hard Fox commentator.
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Fernando Niembro[/center]
Fox "News" really has a special touch every place it infests. They hook up with exactly the same kind of people in Argentina, apparently, they worship here.
Thank you for sharing the information on Macri. It would be such devastation for a good country if this fascist wormed his way into the Presidency. I would hope the majority of Argentinians are too keenly aware of what happens when the right-wing gets the upper hand.
