Amado Boudou (; born 19 November 1962) is an Argentine economist and politician who served as the
Vice President of Argentina from 2011 to 2015. He previously served as
Minister of Economy from 2009 to 2011.
In August 2018, following a
lengthy investigation, he was convicted of corruption. He was then sentenced to five years and ten months in prison, and banned for life from holding public office.
Early life and career
Amado Boudou was born in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
, in 1962. His father, also named Amado, was born to a
French immigrant from
Aveyron
Aveyron (; ) is a Departments of France, department in the Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Southern France. It was named after the river Aveyron (river), Aveyron. Its inhabitants are known as ''Aveyro ...
named ''Aimé'', and this became a nickname for both.
He was raised in the ocean-front city of
Mar del Plata and enrolled in the
National University of Mar del Plata, where he received a degree in economics, in 1986; described by acquaintances as a sociable type and fond of the bass guitar, he helped produce a number of rock concerts in Mar del Plata in his days as a student, including a festival attended by 15,000 spectators.
[Amado Boudou: curriculum vitae]
Boudou attended graduate courses in economics and was awarded a master's degree in economics by a private institution, the
Argentine Macroeconomic Studies Center (CEMA), which is well known locally for its support of
neo-liberal and
free market
In economics, a free market is an economic market (economics), system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of ...
policies.
Boudou was then brought in as a salesman by Venturino Ehisur S.A. (a local sanitation services company). Following his role in securing a number of lucrative hospital contracts for the company, he was named general manager in 1992 of their government contracts office. The company closed, however, when one of its top municipal clients terminated the contract in 1995.
[''Perfil'' (25 October 2008)]
He then co-founded Ecoplata S.A., another sanitation services firm, and acted as its project manager; Ecoplata was awarded sanitation contracts by the resort cities of
Villa Gesell and
Pinamar.
He married Daniela Andriuolo in 1993, but they were divorced five years later; they had no children.
Boudou entered public service in 1998, when he was named to the Comptroller's Office of the National Social Security Administration (
ANSES) by Economy Minister
Roque Fernández (a fellow CEMA alumnus),
and in February 2001, he was named that office's general manager. The election of
Justicialist Party candidate Juan Pablo de Jesús as Mayor of the sea-side
La Costa District resulted in Boudou's appointment as Finance Secretary for the popular resort district, which the policy maker accepted.
The Finance Secretary subscribed to the 2005 Federal Housing Plan promulgated by President
Néstor Kirchner, a decision which made La Costa eligible for 486 low-income housing units. The contract, awarded to local builder Cantera FC in May 2005 for nearly US$10 million,
was followed by Boudou's return to the ANSES, in January 2006.
The Cantera FC contract resulted in an administrative debacle, however, when the builder abandoned the works in June 2007, having by then received over US$7 million in payments (for which the Mayor never initiated litigation).
National policy maker
Returned to the ANSES by its director,
Sergio Massa, Boudou was named its financial director (a post second only to the director's in importance), and oversaw the voluntary conversion of several million private pension accounts to the ANSES' aegis when this choice was made available in December 2006. He was appointed its director in October 2008, after Massa's promotion to the powerful post of Presidential Cabinet Chief.
Boudou's appointment coincided with President
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's controversial decision to transfer loss-plagued private
pension funds
A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any program, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income. The U.S. Government's Social Security Trust Fund, which oversees $2.57 trillion in assets, is the world' ...
' assets of nearly US$30 billion to the ANSES, citing the cost of subsidizing 77% of the funds' beneficiaries and the effects of the
2008 financial crisis
The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...
on the government's ability to obtain financing.
Following the ruling
Front for Victory's defeat in the June 2009
mid-term elections, Economy Minister
Carlos Rafael Fernández tendered his resignation to the President, effective 7 July, and was replaced by the ANSES Director.
Fallout from the
2008 financial crisis
The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...
later forced the left-wing Argentine government of President
Cristina Kirchner to seek domestic financing for growing public spending, as well as for
foreign debt service obligations. These policies and ongoing
capital flight put further pressure on the
Central Bank
A central bank, reserve bank, national bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the monetary policy of a country or monetary union. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central bank possesses a monopoly on increasing the mo ...
's ability to finance debt service obligations, and the president ordered a US$6.7 billion account opened at the Central Bank for the latter purpose in December 2009, implying the use of the Central Bank's
foreign exchange reserves, and drawing direct opposition from the institution's president,
Martín Redrado; Redrado was ultimately forced to resign.
Boudou presented a
debt swap package on 3 May 2010, for the holders of over US$18 billion in bonds who did not participate in the 2005
Argentine debt restructuring prepared by former Economy Minister
Roberto Lavagna. These
holdouts include numerous
vulture funds which had eschewed the 2005 offer, and had instead resorted to the courts in a bid for higher returns on their defaulted bonds. These disputes had led to a number of liens against central bank accounts in New York and, indirectly, to reduced Argentine access to international credit markets.
In October 2010 Boudou compared Candelaria de la Sota and Martín Kanenguiser, journalists from ''
Clarín'' and ''
La Nación'', with the people cleaning the gas chambers during the
Holocaust. Kanenguiser requested clarification, but Boudou instead defended his statement. His attack was condemned by the FOPEA (an organization of journalists), members of the legislature, and the
DAIA.
[Unánime rechazo al ministro](_blank)
The DAIA accused him of trivializing the holocaust, and Congressman
Eduardo Amadeo demanded his resignation;
Boudou later stated that this was a badly chosen metaphor.
The Economy Minister announced his bid for the office of
Mayor of Buenos Aires in December 2010 as a candidate in the
Front for Victory primaries ahead of the 2011 race; hoping to solidify his base among the country's influential trade unions, he made the announcement at the headquarters of SMATA (the machinists' and auto workers' union). Ultimately, however, Senator
Daniel Filmus was nominated in May.
Vice-Presidency
Boudou was nominated as running mate on President
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's
Front for Victory ticket for the
2011 elections. Boudou's role in the campaign was noted for his numerous performances at rallies with his bass guitar, and as a DJ. They won the October general election with 54% of the vote. Vice President Boudou assumed presidential duties for twenty days on 4 January 2012, while President Fernández de Kirchner underwent a
thyroidectomy and convalesced.
Boudou again assumed presidential duties for 42 days
on 8 October 2013, while President Fernández de Kirchner underwent surgery to relieve
bleeding on her brain and convalesced.
Trial and conviction
The vice president faced accusations of
influence peddling in 2012 regarding contracts awarded by the Economy Ministry to Ciccone Printing for the supply of 100 peso bills, license plates, and other government issues. The controversy arose following statements made by the ex-wife of Ciccone executive
Alejandro Vanderbroele to the effect that Boudou was his
silent partner in the firm. It was alleged that
César Guido Forcieri, who had previously worked under Boudou, had made the connection between the two men. Pursuant to prosecutor Carlos Rívolo's request and following news that the
Puerto Madero
Puerto Madero, also known within the urban planning community as the Puerto Madero Waterfront, is a Barrios and Communes of Buenos Aires, ''barrio'' of Buenos Aires in the Buenos Aires Central Business District, Central Business District. Occup ...
condominium rented by Boudou was owned by a friend of Vanderbroele who had, moreover, borrowed funds from Boudou, Judge Daniel Rafecas ordered the residence searched for proof of business associations between Vanderbroele and the vice president; a receipt for one month of
homeowner association dues owed by the condominium's owner, Fabián Carosso, and paid instead by Vanderbroele, was located in the search on 4 April.
Following an August 2013 judicial ruling ordering prosecutors to provide evidence of wrongdoing, and their subsequent failure to do so, on 11 September a Federal Court granted a motion by Boudou's attorneys that would allow them to file for a
dismissal of charges. He was, however, indicted on
passive bribery and influence peddling charges by Judge Ariel Lijo on 27 June 2014; Boudou appealed the indictment on 10 July, alleging
malicious prosecution. Boudou is also being investigated for several other offenses and/or crimes, and is a defendant in a total of ten cases in the Federal Courts.
On 3 November 2017, Boudou was arrested on charges of
money laundering
Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...
and
racketeering
Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercion, coercive, fraud, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. ...
, during the ongoing trial. The case concluded in August 2018 with him sentenced to five years and ten months. He has also been banned for life from holding public office. Nicolás Ciccone, former owner of Ciccone Printing, was also sentenced to four years and six months.
He is jailed at a prison in
Ezeiza, alongside other inmates also convicted in corruption cases during the Kirchner government, such as
José López and
Lázaro Báez.
Boudou claims that he is a victim of political persecution.
He has said that the "alleged bribe has no basis or link to the evidence because it didn’t exist."
This seems to be supported by the latest developments in the
Marcelo D'Alessio case being investigated by the Federal Judge of Dolores
Alejo Ramos Padilla. D'Alessio was allegedly part of an espionage gang with members of the
AFI (Federal Intelligence Agency), the Judicial Branch and Journalists that forged false penal cases against members and allies of the former Argentinian government as part of a
Lawfare campaign. The attorneys of
Núñez Carmona, who was accused along with Boudou, asked Judge Ramos Padilla to investigate if the testimony of Vandenbroele was indeed prepared by members of the AFI and the Ministry of Security.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Boudou, Amado
Vice presidents of Argentina
Ministers of economy of Argentina
1962 births
Living people
Argentine economists
Justicialist Party politicians
Businesspeople from Buenos Aires
Politicians from Buenos Aires
Argentine people of French descent
21st-century Argentine politicians
Prisoners and detainees of Argentina
Argentine politicians convicted of corruption
National University of Mar del Plata alumni
Fernández de Kirchner administration cabinet members