Insurance scandal: how Alberto Fernández declared the debt he owes to Héctor Martínez Sosa, husband of his private secretary

On the same day in which the federal prosecutor Ramiro González charged him for the alleged crime of embezzlement of funds with respect to the suspected negotiations in the ANSeS with the contracting of insurance through intermediaries, the former president Alberto Fernández confirmed that he still has a debt with the broker Héctor Martínez Sosa, husband of his private secretary. But between his statements and his mandatory filings with the Anticorruption Office , doubts arise regarding the amounts and currency of the liability.

In the sworn statements filed by Alberto Fernández as President of the Nation, it only appears that he owes money to one person: Martínez Sosa, a key player in the insurance scheme revealed by Clarín last Sunday. He also registered debts with Banco Santander, the American Express credit card and the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP). All debts declared in Argentine pesos.

Besides being a friend of the former president, Martínez Sosa is the husband of María Cantero, his historic private secretary for the last 30 years, including the time when Fernández was Superintendent of Insurance during the Menemism.

Throughout his term of office and in spite of the inflation that in the last year reached 211.4%, Alberto Fernandez declared that he owed Martinez Sosa $102,240. Every year and in every sworn statement, he repeated the figure and the creditor.

However, this now contrasts with his own statements. This week, in a conversation with the newspaper La Nación, he explained that the debt is still in force, that it was a loan he took from his friend in 2008 for US$ 20,000 and that he was never able to repay it.

"When I left the Chief of Cabinet shortly after I had a financial problem because I had closed my law firm, I did not leave it running so that someone would think that it was a place to lobby from the government", said the former president this Thursday in a dialogue with radio La Red.

"When I came back, I had a hard time putting together my portfolio of clients, Martínez Sosa helped me, that happened in 2009-2010. To this day I owe money to Martínez Sosa. It is in all the statements I filed with the AFIP when I was not a civil servant and when I was a civil servant. A personal loan that he gave me and that I declared before the AFIP", added Fernández, with a different year than the one he had told the newspaper.

For the figure of $102,240 to be comparable to the exact number of U$S 20,000, it is necessary to go back to April 2012, when the first currency exchange restriction of Kirchnerism, established during Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's second term in office, had been in place for a short time. Between April 23 and 24, 2021, the blue dollar then traded at $5.11.

The debt with the presidential friend was not updated in the public records.

The plot of the insurance scandal for which Alberto Fernández was indicted

In December 2021, Alberto Fernández issued a decree ordering all state agencies to take out the insurance they needed with Banco Nación's insurance company, Nación Seguros.

Despite the fact that state agencies were obliged to contract the services of Nación Seguros, they still did so through intermediaries, which charged commissions of up to 17%. One of the most benefited with these negotiations was Martínez Sosa, the broker friend of the former President, who obtained the millionaire business of insurance for those who took loans from ANSeS. According to what Ricardo Roa revealed on Sunday in Clarín, this business reached some $ 20 billion.

ANSeS was not the only state agency that hired Martínez Sosa. In March 2022 -just over two months after the decree- the Superintendence of Health Insurance appointed Martínez Sosa as an intermediary in the insurance contracting of Nación Seguros, which was managed by Alberto Pagliano, a man of great confidence of Fernández.

The Mint did the same 20 days later, and the National Gendarmerie , the Ministry of Security, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Federal Penitentiary Service, among other agencies, also contracted with Martínez Sosa.

Earlier, on March 27, 2020, the Governor's Office of Tierra del Fuego cut the contract with Banco Provincia de Tierra del Fuego (BTF Seguros) by which it was entrusted with the integral management of the process of concentration of property and casualty insurance policies, including the coverage of own and specific risks of the daily operation, passed it to the competences to the Provincial Purchasing Office. And in July of the same year they signed a consultancy agreement with Héctor Martínez Sosa y Cia SA for the same tasks that the provincial bank had.

Melella assures that when he was mayor of Rio Grande he dismissed Martínez Sosa as insurance manager because he had a bad performance. "I removed him because we had no response from the ART, they did not give a damn about the employees who had an accident at work. The support was not good, they did not attend," he told the newspaper La Nación. But when asked why he changed his decision when he became governor, he stated that he did not find "a better one".

The scandal was uncovered on Sunday by Clarín and in only four days it has ramifications in provinces and more officials.

DS