ARGENTINES NOT SHOCKED THERE'S CORRUPTION GOING

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001742

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV KCOR PREL EFIN AR
SUBJECT: ARGENTINES NOT SHOCKED THERE'S CORRUPTION GOING
ON: MUTED REACTION TO SIEMENS REVELATIONS

REF: BUENOS AIRES 1164


1. (SBU) Summary: German company Siemens' December 15 guilty
plea with the U.S. Department of Justice-Fraud Section, over
corrupt practices, including payments of bribes to officials
in previous Argentine governments, has provoked sustained
attention in the Argentine press but no major reaction from
government or from the public. Argentine federal prosecuting
judge Ariel Lijo, in charge of the Argentine investigation of
Siemens, contacted DOJ Attorney at post December 22 to
request assistance, but has no plans to travel to the United
States. He said he would travel to Germany to collect
evidence. Although the GOA initially was moderately
concerned that the Siemens plea agreement suggested
continuing payments to GOA officials through 2007 -- thus
potentially implicating the 2003-2007 government of President
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's (CFK) husband, Nestor
Kirchner -- press reports of a December 17 letter from the
local Siemens affiliate to the GOA denying any payments under
the Kirchner governments appear to have assuaged that
concern. Although the CFK government appears not to have any
problems with evidence surfacing of Menem-era corruption, it
may not make too much hay out of this guilty plea for fear of
eliciting calls for similar degrees of transparency and
investigation into more recent government deals. End Summary.


2. (SBU) The December 15 announcement of a guilty plea by
German company Siemens under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act, as well as revelations from the related case
in Germany, have attracted sustained press attention in
Argentina. The media have drawn obvious conclusions from the
reports' identification of bribe recipients by initials and
titles to tag former President Carlos Menem, his Interior
Minister Carlos Corach, and Immigration Director Hugo Franco
as recipients of millions of dollars in bribes paid by
Siemens to win a bloated $1.2 billion 1998 contract to issue
high-tech national identity cards to all Argentines. In
addition, press has focused on the possibility of bribes paid
to officials in the subsequent de la Rua government, when the
discredited Siemens contract was renegotiated before
eventually being rescinded.


3. (SBU) The government of President Cristina Feranandez de
Kirchner (CFK) reportedly took issue at first with the plea
agreement's language of bribes and other illicit activities
by Siemens extending from 1998 to 2007, which suggested at
least illicit activities under the government of CFK's
husband, former President Nestor Kirchner (NK, 2003-2007).
USG sources quoted by the local press, however, indicated
that no government officials in the Nestor Kirchner or
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner administrations had been
implicated. On December 17, the President of Siemens
Argentina, Enrique Antonio Genzone, was reported by the press
(La Nacion, December 18) to have written to CFK Minister of
Planning Julio de Vido to report that the bribes occurred
"only under the Menem government," or "not since 2003" (a
"clarification" that contains an apparent contradiction
regarding the 1999-2001 de la Rua government). Siemens took
out a full-page ad in major Argentine newspapers over the
weekend of December 20 to repeat its statement that neither
Kirchner government was involved in the corruption.

Requests for Assistance
--------------


4. (U) Argentine press have drawn attention to a reported
provision of the U.S. plea agreement that requires Siemens to
fully cooperate with foreign governments investigating the
cases of corruption affecting them. This was described as an
"open door" and an unprecedented opportunity for Argentina to
investigate local corrupt practices, with some questioning of
whether the GOA was responding with enough energy to the case.


5. (SBU) Embassy has received two GOA approaches about
possible requests for assistance under our Mutual Legal
Assistance Treaty (MLAT). First, officials from the Ministry
of Justice's Anti-Corruption Office contacted Legat on
December 19 to request assistance in obtaining the plea
agreement, and in particular confirmation of the names of
those referred to by their initials and title as well as
details on evidence that the bribes were paid. On December
22, federal investigating judge Ariel Lijo contacted DOJ
Attorney at Post to request help in obtaining a certified

copy of the complaint against Siemens and the plea agreement.
In addition, he requested help obtaining the German audit of
Siemens. DOJ Attorney at Post is working with DOJ
prosecutors on Lijo's request for the U.S. public documents
and inquiring regarding the availability, through U.S.
channels, of the German audit.

Denials
--------------


6. (U) After a day of silence, former President Carlos Menem
issued a denial that he had accepted any bribes, calling the
allegations "malicious." Officials in the de la Rua
administration have engaged in a more robust bout of
finger-pointing, arguing over who was responsible for
considering a renegotiation of the Siemens contract even
after official reports of irregularities had been issued by
the semi-autonomous GAO-equivalent Sindicatura General de la
Nacion (SIGEN).

A Good Fit with the Kirchner Narrative, But...
-------------- -


7. (SBU) Comment: Generally, the Siemens revelations fit
well with the Kirchner narrative that former President Carlos
Menem's march to privatize the economy was a process larded
with corrupt deals. The detailed and convincing charges now
leveled against Menem and his associates offer something more
concrete than Argentine justice has been able to produce to
date. This may also play out in Argentina's favor in the
realm of investment disputes, given that the CFK government
has sought to annul the February 2007 ICSID ruling that
awarded Siemens $217.8 million for the GoA's 2001
cancellation of the identity card project. (The ICSID
arbitral panel ruled that the de la Rua government decision
to rescind the identify card contract was a breach of
contract under the Argentina-Germany Bilateral Investment
Treaty. See reftel for background.)


8. (SBU) Comment continued: Still, the CFK administration may
be reluctant to make too much of the case given widespread
suspicions that all is not entirely right in the current (and
previous) government's public licitation processes. Official
corruption in Argentina is not the province of one former
government or one wing of the Peronists, and too much
attention to the Siemens case, it may be feared, might
encourage the public to demand even greater and broader
scrutiny to contracts. We can't help but note to ourselves
that the DOJ and SEC pursuit of Siemens (by implicating
Kirchner opponent Menem rather than a Kirchner official)
serendipitously undermines the Kirchner assertions of a vast
USG conspiracy against them.
WAYNE