Buenos Aires, March 3 (NA) – Following the summons by Federal Judge María Eugenia Capuchetti, a declaratory hearing will be held this Tuesday for the former head of INET and current Chief of Cabinet of Buenos Aires, Gabriel Sánchez Zinny, in a case for alleged fraud against the public administration and incompatible negotiations related to the granting of tax credits to Toyota Argentina. The measure was ordered in the framework of case CFP 1837/2024, titled “Sánchez Zinny, Gabriel and Others / Incompatible negotiations, fraud by fraudulent administration and fraud against the Public Administration”, at the request of Federal Prosecutor's Office No. 12, headed by María Alejandra Mangano. According to information obtained by the Argentine News Agency, Diego Pablo Taurizano, Diego Hernán Gabella, and Martín Galante were also summoned to testify for events that occurred between March 29, 2016, and April 11, 2017, while they were serving at the National Institute of Technical Education (INET) and the Ministry of Education and Sports. The accusation alleges that, from their positions, they carried out contracting through the tax credit regime that could not be made directly because they did not comply with public contracting regulations and due to family and personal ties with members of the beneficiary companies. The maneuver consisted of issuing tax credit certificates in favor of Toyota Argentina SA as a sponsoring company of educational projects under Law 22.317. Meanwhile, the originally budgeted amount in tax credit certificates for Toyota Argentina SA was $7,000,000, which, updated, would amount to $40,501,514.67. According to the fiscal request, the operation was supported by INET Resolution 2/2016 and the processing of “special files” that were not registered in the organization's usual computer systems, as learned by the Argentine News Agency. The prosecutor considered that the evidence gathered, including documentation submitted by the Office of Anti-Corruption and administrative files from INET, are sufficient to meet the standard of suspicion required for a summons to testify. The accused must answer for actions that could constitute fraud against the public administration and incompatible negotiations with the exercise of public functions, without prejudice to the investigation incorporating new criminal charges. The investigation indicated that the contracted services presented irregularities, low quality, inconsistencies in dates, and lack of documentary support. The amount of the presumed damage accredited was $2,854,405, a figure that updated with the active rate of the National Bank reached $16,515,389.42. However, the prosecutor's office understood that the funds were used to hire private consultancy and advertising services that did not adjust to the educational purposes established by the norm. In the three accredited cases, the money that stopped entering the State was destined to the firms Grupo Arde SRL, Grupo SI SRL, and Blink SRL.
