Falklands sabre-rattler and ex Argentina leader Cristina Fernandez indicted for £3BN fraud
FORMER Argentine president Cristina Fernandez faces 20 years behind bars after being indicted for defrauding her country out of an alleged $5.2BILLION (£3.2billion).
EPA
Cristina Fernandez denies any wrongdoing
The firebrand politician, whose tenure was dominated by sabre-rattling over the future of the Falkland Islands, is accused of embezzling funds earmarked for public works.
Despite positioning herself as a socialist champion for the poor, prosecutors allege tha the ex-president syphoned off money from the public purse to add to her own personal fortune.
Federal judge Clauido Bonadio said a scheme to inflate the Argentine peso by selling the central bank’s US dollars below market value would not have been possible without the ex-president.
Judge Bonadio said the state lost more than $5billion (£3billion), allowing buyers to make a big profit on transactions. Judge Bonadio said the state lost more than $5billion (£3billion), allowing buyers to make a big profit on transactions
The sales also created a sharp drop in central bank reserves.
The indictment means prosecutors can plough ahead and put Ferdanez, 63, on trial.
She faces up to 20 years behind bars if found guilty.
The ex-president, her economy minister Axel Kicillof, former central bank chief Alejandro Vanoli, and 12 others were charged with 'unfaithful administration to the detriment of public administration', according to court papers.
The accusation is that the central bank took billions of dollars worth of money-losing positions in the futures market ahead of a widely expected devaluation of the Argentine peso.
The ruling said: “It's impossible to believe that a financial operation of this size could have been carried out without the approval of the highest executive level of the national government.
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But Fernandez has denied any wrongdoing and says she is the victim of political persecution, since the criminal complaints were filed by officials in her successor Mauricio Macri's coalition.
The accusations are likely to infuriate many ordinary Argentinians, who struggled to make ends meet through years of economic mismanagement by Fernandez.
But it will raise few eyebrows in the Falklands, where the bombastic rhetoric of the popularist president meant the threat of a second invasion never truly went away.
Fernandez was forced to step down as president of Argentina in December after eight years in charge, with conservative Mauricio Macri going on to beat her hand-picked successor in an election.
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