Former Argentine official Claudio Uberti arrested in Antonini Wilson suitcase case

Claudio Uberti, former head of the Road Concessions Control Body (Occovi), was arrested by judicial order after the Supreme Court upheld the conviction against him in the case known as the "Antonini Wilson suitcase". A warrant for the former official's arrest had been issued, and he was placed at the disposal of the Justice system by Judge Sabrina Namer, who is acting in the First Oral Court in Economic Criminal Matters and is in charge of carrying out the sentence. According to the Argentine News Agency, the case dates back to the early morning of August 4, 2007, when Venezuelan businessman Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson attempted to enter the country with a suitcase containing $790,550 in cash in $50 bills, without declaring it to Customs. Antonini Wilson had arrived at Aeroparque on a private flight with Uberti, Argentine officials, and Venezuelan citizens linked to PDVSA, within the framework of management related to energy contracts and infrastructure works. The money was detected during a security check using a scanner operated by airport personnel, despite attempts to avoid a thorough inspection. When questioned, Antonini Wilson initially stated that he was transporting "books and papers," then said he was carrying about $60,000, but when the suitcase was opened, it was confirmed that the amount was much higher. Subsequently, the businessman—who remains at large—declared before the US FBI that the money was intended to finance the Kirchnerism electoral campaign. Uberti is also one of the repentant individuals in the "notebooks of bribes" case, where he confessed to having transported suitcases with money collected from road concessionaires to deliver to Néstor Kirchner, and he maintained that Cristina Kirchner was aware of these maneuvers. The Supreme Court, with the signatures of Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz, and Ricardo Lorenzetti, rejected the defense's last appeal on formal grounds, which left the conviction final and enabled his immediate detention and effective fulfillment of the sentence.