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"Swiftgate" was the name given to a 1991 corruption scandal in
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
during the presidency of
Carlos Menem Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. Ideologically, he identified as a Peronist and supported economically liberal policies. H ...
.


Background

Swift Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIFT, ...
, an American food processing company, wanted to apply for a grant to keep open its facilities in the province of Santa Fe. The presidential adviser Emir Yoma was accused of asking for a commission or kickback in exchange for facilitating the process. In December 1990, the ambassador of the United States,
Terence Todman Terence Alphonso Todman (March 13, 1926 – August 13, 2014) was an American diplomat who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Chad, Guinea, Costa Rica, Spain, Denmark, and Argentina. In 1990, he was awarded the rank of Career Ambassador. Life Todma ...
, sent a note to the Argentine government, which backed a complaint from Swift of a bribery request to "speed up" the release of tax paperwork for machinery for its plant in Rosario. As a result of the events, Yoma had to resign for asking the bribe and Antonio Erman Gonzalez left the Ministry of Economy. The
whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...
was the economist Guillermo Nielsen, who had worked for Swift and had to settle in
Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
for the next two years following a series of threats.


See also

*
Yomagate The Yomagate was a political scandal that took place in Argentina in 1991, during the government of Carlos Menem. The name combines the last name of the involved (Amira Yoma), and the suffix "Gate" of habitual use in journalism after the Watergate ...
*
Carlos Menem Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. Ideologically, he identified as a Peronist and supported economically liberal policies. H ...
*
Horacio Verbitsky Horacio Verbitsky (born February 11, 1942) is an Argentine investigative journalist and author with a history as a leftist guerrilla in the Montoneros. In the early 1990s, he reported on a series corruption scandals in the administration of Presi ...


References

{{Carlos Menem Political scandals in Argentina Corruption in Argentina Presidency of Carlos Menem 1991 in Argentina