Paradise Papers: Argentine Energy Minister Juan Aranguren used offshore firms for state contracts

[sandensea]

A second cabinet member in Argentine President Mauricio Macri's administration has been linked to undisclosed offshore banking by the Paradise Papers scandal rocking international politics.

Mariel Fitz Patrick of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which first published the documents, revealed that Energy Minister Juan José Aranguren directed two Barbados-based offshore companies: Sol Antilles & Guianas Ltd. and Shell Western Supply & Trading Ltd. - the latter having received sizable contracts from the right-wing Macri administration.

Both firms worked with Shell Argentina, which Aranguren, 63, led as CEO for 12 years and in which his family trust remains a significant shareholder.

"While he was a Shell executive, he was a board member of two offshore companies in Barbados; one was a subsidiary of Shell that operated for Latin America," Fitz Patrick said.

Shell Western Supply, founded in 1996, has been awarded 13 natural gas import contracts since last year by the state electricity distributor CAMMESA - which Aranguren's Energy Ministry controls. The largest was for $150 million.

Asked for comment by ICIJ, Aranguren said he "didn't recall."

This is not the first corruption scandal to implicate the energy minister since he was appointed by Macri two years ago.

His offices were raided last year on conflict of interest charges over his authorization of 600% gas utility rate hikes without arranging ​​prior public hearings as required by law, and over natural gas imports from a Shell Argentina subsidiary in Chile rather than from Bolivia (which are 56% cheaper).

Both moves favored Shell Argentina.

The Macri administration has been rocked by both the Paradise Papers and Panama Papers.

Finance Minister Luis Caputo was revealed yesterday to have managed two undisclosed offshore investment funds, in Miami and the Cayman Islands, with at at least $100 million under portfolio.

Macri himself was one of five sitting heads of government listed in the Panama Papers and Open Corporate leaks, published in April 2016, with over 50 offshore shell companies in his name or his family's dating from as far back as 1981.

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.elintransigente.com%2Fpolitica%2F2017%2F11%2F7%2Faranguren-tambien-aparece-paradise-papers-465198.html

Argentine Energy Minister Juan José Aranguren: "I don't recall."

[Judi Lynn]

1. Juan Jos Aranguren's photo serves as proof he's telling the truth!

Any time someone opens his/her eyes as wide as possible, you can tell he/she is innocent! Works every time, yeah, that's right, every time! Or maybe that's the expression that goes with catching a sneaky kid with his/her hand in the cookie jar.

It shows how powerful Macri's hold on the government is up to the present that he and Aranguren were able to impose such a horrendous tax hike on the people without a hearing, and all the assorted other thievery they have accomplished without penalty.

What will it take beyond the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers to blow these mega-criminals out of the country's government?

Even more shocking news. It is all accumulating, and they are unable to deny it. In time there must be an accounting.

Thank you, sandensea, for being a tremendous window and source for Argentina information, and more.

[sandensea]

2. Why, thank you Judi. Talk about self-dealing, right?

Or as they put it in Argentina: 'being on both sides of the sales counter'.

And what will it take beyond the Panama and Paradise Papers?

Among others, the Singer Papers (i.e. his Caymans-based laundromat NML).

My guess is that if its files were ever trotted out, it would snare everyone from Macri lackeys to a large number of GOP officials and congresscritters here at home as well as Israelis and others.

They'll sing like a canary, as it were - or a vulture.