Argentina's Congress late Wednesday approved the expropriation of a currency-printing company involved in a corruption scandal that has tainted Argentina's vice-president. The measure nationalising the company formerly known as Ciccone Calcografica was approved in the Chamber of Deputies on a 145-77 vote after a bitter debate.
President Cristina Kirchner's government insisted the company needs to be in state hands to "maintain monetary sovereignty" and to "concentrate currency printing and the minting of coins." The opposition charged that the move was aimed at protecting Vice President Amado Boudou, who is under investigation by Argentina's tax office for allegedly using his influence to help rescue the company from bankruptcy in 2010 when he was economy minister.
Boudou has denied the charge, and has blamed media and judicial "mafias" for being behind the scandal after authorities raided one of his expensive rental properties in April as part of the influence-peddling probe. Agustin Rossi, head of the pro-government faction in Congress, attacked opponents for "making baseless corruption charges" against Boudou, emphasizing that he had not been charged with anything.
Ricardo Gil Lavedra, a leading opposition lawmaker, said he had "serious suspicions that we are facing a monumental act of corruption." Another opposition lawmaker, Roy Cortina, said the company was being expropriated "to cover-up the most scandalous corruption case in the last nine and a half years." The Kirchner administration has already expropriated several companies, most notably oil company YPF, formerly a subsidiary of Spanish oil firm Repsol. Kirchner was elected president in 2007 and re-elected in 2011. She followed her late husband Nestor Kirchner, who was president 2003-2007.