Court confirms seizure of Cristina Kirchner assets in corruption case

Former Argentine president Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner, her children and construction businessman Lzaro Bez accused by prosecutors of acting as a front man for the Kirchner family will have to repay AR$685 billion (US$480 million at the official exchange rate) in the corruption case known as the Vialidad case, for which the Peronist leader is currently serving house arrest. On Thursday, a federal cassation court rejected appeals filed by the Kirchner family and Bez, upholding an earlier ruling ordering the seizure of 111 assets belonging to them, equivalent to the amount the judiciary says they obtained through fraudulent operations. The decision is part of the fraud case for which Kirchner has been serving a six-year sentence under house arrest since June 2025, along with a lifetime ban from holding public office.  Bez, a former associate of the ex-president, is serving a 15-year prison sentence under a unified conviction combining the Vialidad case and a separate money laundering case. Last year, Kirchner was convicted of directing 51 federally funded public works contracts in Santa Cruz province to companies owned by Bez, in what the Argentine judiciary determined was a fraudulent scheme.  The AR$685 billion figure corresponds to the amount the courts say was obtained through those fraudulent contracts. Seized assets Of the 111 assets to be seized by the judiciary, 80 belong to Bez, one to Kirchner, and 19 to the ex-president’s children, Florencia and Mximo Kirchner. The latter is currently a national deputy from Peronist party Unin por la Patria.  The rest of the assets belong to other entities and people involved in the case. One of the judges that signed the ruling, Gustavo Hornos, justified the decision to seize those assets by saying that committing a crime does not constitute a legitimate basis for generating legally recognized wealth.  The measure, he added, seeks to prevent crime from yielding profits. The seizure had originally been ordered by another court in July, but those involved appealed the decision. At the time, that court had said the sum of money obtained by Kirchner, Bez and the other people involved was considered the product of an extremely serious act of corruption. In August 2025, Kirchner was spared from paying a penalty of AR$22.3 billion (US$15.6 million at the current rate) as part of a civil suit in the Vialidad case.