Buenos Aires, November 21, 2025 – The oral trial for the so-called 'Notebooks Case' advanced this Thursday with the reading of the third hearing, focused on the statements of repentant individuals who reveal the workings of an illegal fundraising scheme that allegedly operated between 2003 and 2015 under the governments of former Presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. The Attorney General, Fabiana León, emphasized that this is the largest corruption trial in Argentine history. In parallel, the defense has raised multiple objections to the central piece of evidence: the notebooks of the former driver Centeno underwent forensic analysis, revealing alterations, strikeouts, and additions by other authors, which the defense calls 'manipulation.' The trial, which brings together 87 accused individuals, including former ministers, businessmen, and drivers, once again focused on the role of former Minister Julio De Vido and Undersecretary Roberto Baratta within the alleged bribery system that benefited construction and energy companies in exchange for public works. In his turn, the repentant former driver Óscar Centeno stated that the cash deliveries began with Néstor Kirchner and continued during Cristina Fernández's presidency: 'With Cristina as president, we went once a week... With Néstor alive, we went up to three times a week,' he recounted. Meanwhile, the defense teams are preparing their cross-examination strategies and appealing to the presumption of innocence, anticipating a process that promises to set a political and judicial precedent. According to his testimony, within the company Isolux, he saw official Baratta 'with two suitcases' and overheard a coded phone call: 'six kilowatts,' which would be equivalent to 'six million.' The circuit described includes deliveries made at the presidential residence, in 'Olivos,' and at the apartment on Uruguay Street in Buenos Aires, where the 'clean' funds were counted and then transported to Santa Cruz aboard Tango 01. The evidence is more than eloquent, and they have no choice but to sow doubts, sources close to the prosecution assure. The course of the trial and the media impact of the repentant witnesses' testimonies have rekindled public attention on the illegal fundraising network that operated for over a decade, whose dismantling is projected as a milestone in the fight against systemic corruption in Argentina. In his statement, former road concessions official Claudio Uberti added that he saw '20 suitcases' on a landing and that Muñoz commented: 'After this, I'm going to start a suitcase business.' Thursday's session also included the reading of testimonies from a group of major repentant businessmen, such as Angelo Calcaterra, Aldo Roggio, and Carlos Wagner, who pointed to Baratta as one of the central operators of the bribery system and agreed that they had made payments to secure state contracts. The court overseeing the trial, Federal Oral Court 7, presided over by Judge Enrique Méndez Signori, set that starting next week, hearings will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays in a mixed virtual-in-person format to expedite the extension of the process. The prosecution maintains that a criminal association was constituted within the Executive branch and that the former head of state, Cristina Fernández, was its leader, holding her responsible for directed adjudications, irregular political financing, and receiving bribes for her own benefit.
