MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Maximo Kirchner accused of having secret accounts in the US and Cayman Islands

The Argentine president's son and former minister Nilda Garre are mentioned in pieces published in Clarin and Brazil's Veja

Maximo Kirchner, son of Argentine president Cristina Fernandez and former Defense and Security Minister Nilda Garre figure with secret bank accounts, stashed with millions of dollars, in the United States and in the Cayman Islands, according to reports in Buenos Aires daily Clarin and Brazil's Veja, the weekly magazine with the largest circulation in that country.

 Allegedly in one of those accounts opened in October 2005, at one moment (April 2010) it held 41 million dollars. The account was opened at the Felton bank, Delaware, and Ms Garre shared access with Maximo. The former Defense and Domestic Security minister had been at the time four months as Ambassador before the Venezuelan government.

A second account was opened at the Morval Bank & Trust Ltd in the Cayman Islands and at some moment registered 19.845.300 dollars. Likewise Maximo and Garre figured as owning the account. Apparently in Cayman Islands, the president's son figures with Argentine passport number 25.896.310 and a Buenos Aires address, Juncal 1409, first floor.

However Veja has additional information allegedly provided by an American financial expert with access to accounts' numbers, dates and sums involved, which in 2010 “totaled over 60 million dollars”

The first account number is 00049859852398325985, and was opened in 2005 at the Felton bank, with a company identified as Business and Services IBC, with headquarters in the tax haven of Belize.

Veja says that the account figures to the names of Nilda Garre, Maximo Kirchner and Henry Aaset, a former lawmaker from the province of Santa Cruz and solicitor of the Kirchner family. “The first deposit was done in Caracas, Venezuela and by April 2010 the account figured with 41.7 million dollars”. Garre at the time had been head of the Argentine embassy in Venezuela.

The Brazilian magazine also mentions that the second account, number 0004496857463059686359385, “was opened in December 2006 from Luxembourg in the Morval Bank & Trust in the Cayman Islands”. In this account supposedly Maximo and Garre shared the account with Maria Paula Abel Median, daughter of the former minister. In April 2010, the account held 19,8 million dollars, according to the American financial informant.

Clarin goes further and alleges former minister Garre and currently Argentine representative at the OAS (Organization of American States) also had two accounts in the Iran bank Tejarat. However Garre denies having any secret accounts in the US or Iran and says the only accounts she holds are the official ones in HSBC Washington, where she now resides as the OAS ambassador.

As to the accounts in the Iranian bank Tejarat, and to the name of Garre, by February 2011 it had 47 million dollars. Clarin points out that precisely in that date Argentine foreign minister Hector Timerman held a secret meeting with his Iranian counterpart in Alepo, Syria.

Two years later Argentina and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding referred to the AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires. The controversial document was condemned by the opposition and the Jewish community and the deceased former prosecutor Alberto Nisman claims was the first step of the cover up operation to benefit the Iranian government which allegedly masterminded the AMIA 1994 attack, the worst terrorist action in Argentine history.

Finally it must be added that the Clarin group and the government of president Cristina Fernandez are involved in an ongoing battle. The government wants to break up what it considers the “monopoly” of Clarin and its influence over public opinion with a media bill and other legal actions. Once allies the powerful group and the Kirchner couple split when the farmers conflict of 2008, which almost led to the collapse of the Cristina Fernandez administration, and her alleged intention of resigning after losing a crucial congressional vote.