During the tenth hearing, which lasted four hours, 83 pages of the segment were read, where various construction entrepreneurs described the functioning of a system of pressure, illegal fundraising and cartelization in public works. In their testimonies as repentants before prosecutor Carlos Stornelli, and subsequently ratified by Judge Claudio Bonadio, entrepreneurs Patricio Gerbi, Aldo Roggio, Juan Chediak, Carlos Wagner and Marcela Sztenberg described demands for financial contributions, explicit warnings about reprisals and a network that, according to them, conditioned who could work and who was left out of the network, as reconstructed by the Argentine News Agency. Gerbi, president of the construction company COARCO, stated that the pressures began shortly after the signing of road concession contracts. Alongside him operated the financier Ernesto Clarens, defined as "the main person in charge of the fundraising side", responsible for receiving the money, exchanging it on the informal market and channeling it to the final recipients. Prosecutor Stornelli also highlighted the role of the National Directorate of Roads as a key gear of the scheme. According to the testimonies, from there they handled priority payment lists that functioned as a pressure tool and that Cristina Kirchner occupied "the apex of the schematic pyramid aimed at collecting the largest possible amount of money" and that Julio De Vido was the organizer of the system in the public works area. The debate will resume next Thursday at 9:30, when it is expected that the last 51 pages of the segment corresponding to "La Camarita" will be read. "My function was to guarantee that the one who won would pay," he explained, and acknowledged that his own company, ESUCO, also participated in that scheme. Aldo Roggio, for his part, admitted to having made contributions demanded by Roberto Baratta, although he clarified that they were with personal funds and for amounts less than claimed. According to his statement, the demands became unsustainable and, after communicating the impossibility of continuing to pay, the contacts ceased, although the company was drowned in debt, payment delays and lawsuits. The accused collaborators agreed that they were not voluntary contributions, but imposed conditions to avoid sanctions, delays or direct exclusion from the market. Finally, the assessment of the evidence formulated by Stornelli was read. "Public works was going to be one of the methods of raising money," he indicated. According to Wagner's statements, the companies met to decide who would win each work, and once awarded, they had to deliver between 10 and 20 percent of the advance. The prosecutor emphasized that Wagner guaranteed the entrepreneurs the granting of the works and, at the same time, the fulfillment of the demanded expenditures. He stated that from 2004, by order of the Executive Power, a system was organized to ensure that certain companies won tenders and then returned part of the financial advance as a "return" for political expenses. "The climate that existed represented that possibility to me," he pointed out, and described the then government as of "a clearly authoritarian cut." Finally, Marcela Sztenberg, a director of EQUIMAC, recounted the impact of the pressures on the company and her family environment. She recalled that her partner Eduardo Herbon returned from meetings "scared", saying that "they were pressuring him and asking for money for the crown." She identified Clarens as the main interlocutor and described meetings in downtown offices and in Puerto Madero. "If you want to keep working you have to pay," she remembered he told her at a meeting at her home. On the other hand, she said she took money to the former minister's house and to the ministry itself, where on occasions she was told to leave the packages "in the bathroom." The amounts, as detailed, ranged from 100,000 to 250,000 pesos and were monthly. The public prosecutor stated that the system in "La Camarita" was aimed at directing awards, guaranteeing selective payments and illegally raising money through returns demanded from construction companies. In that structure, Wagner was pointed out as the one who "designed the operation and put the illegal collection system into practice." He recounted that then head of the Organ of Control of Road Concessions (OCCOVI), Claudio Uberti, told his partner that "by request of President Kirchner we had to make a money contribution regularly or face the consequences." According to his statement, the initial refusal resulted in inspections, fines, payment delays and direct threats. "He told me 'I'm going to bankrupt you', 'I'm going to take over your company', 'I'm going to come for you and your family'," Gerbi stated, who also admitted that in that scenario, money deliveries began at meetings arranged in bars and pastry shops, with amounts equivalent to between 15,000 and 25,000 dollars each time. Chediak, head of the society that bears his name, described a scheme similar to that provided by Gerbi but with direct demands from then Federal Planning Minister Julio De Vido. He acknowledged deliveries equivalent to 50,000 and 100,000 dollars and explained that he agreed "given the evident probability of reprisals" against his company. "Here you are either a friend or an enemy." More statements Carlos Wagner, former president of the Argentine Chamber of Construction, described a more structural mechanism. Later, he said, the system was centralized in the figure of financier Ernesto Clarens, who was blunt: "If you want to work, you're going to have to pay." Buenos Aires, December 16 (NA) – Oral Tribunal Number 7 resumed this Tuesday the reading of the committal to trial by the writings of Oscar Centeno of the segment known as "La Camarita".
