Amado Boudou, who had been former Argentine president Cristina Fernandez’s economy minister and vice president, was arrested on corruption charges yesterday, becoming the second major official in her government to face detention.
Police arrested Boudou and an alleged associate, Jose Maria Nunez Carmona, in an upscale neighbourhood of Buenos Aires for racketeering and money laundering.
Local television showed Boudou, grim-faced and wearing a plain black t-shirt, as he stood beside two bearded security officers.
In other photographs broadcast on television, he was in handcuffs, standing in what appeared to be his home.
Boudou has denied wrongdoing in the past.
The 55-year-old economist faces three counts of “illicit enrichment” dating back to 2009, the year he was promoted from heading Argentina’s social security administration to become Fernandez’s economy minister.
He became vice president in 2011, when Fernandez won re-election. But he was largely absent from public view during that four-year term as accusations of corruption mounted against him.
He and Carmona “developed their criminal schemes at least since the start of August 2009, when Amado Boudou took charge of the ministry of economy and finance, until the month of December 2015, when he finished his term as vice president,” according to the arrest warrant.
Fernandez’s former planning minister, Julio De Vido, was arrested on October 25, just three days after current President Mauricio Macri’s “Cambiemos,” or “Let’s Change,” coalition swept Argentina’s October 22 midterm elections.
The vote strengthened Macri’s position against arch rival Fernandez, a populist whose spending nearly bankrupted the government during her eight years in power.
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