He federal Department of Justice began to investigate what is behind the buybacks of dollar securities announced by the Economy Minister, Sergio Massas.
The suspicion is that there is non-public information (insider information) that some stock market operators can profit up to in a 50%, so they want to know who is responsible for this leak.
To this end, the prosecutor's office seeks to disqualify the purchasers of securities and summon them to testify. Sebastian Negri, president of the National Securities Delegation.
The testimony serves as a witness, in addition to any duties that may arise from the investigation. The decision was made by federal prosecutor Ramiro González, who summoned the judge Maria Eugenia Capchetti to open a research and take a series of measures.
According to the opinion, the process aims to “determine whether the capital market activity on dates prior to the Resolution No. 1/23, with respect to the amounts indicated there, was associated with the leak of confidential information by people who had prior knowledge of said resolution, which would have allowed a privileged few to obtain extraordinary economic advantages.” They also want to know “There are speculative attacks on the national currency promoted by the country's executives.”
All this happened last week, when the markets saw great interest in some bonds of the government as the dollar rose.
Wednesday morning, Massa announced that Argentina would buy more than a billion dollars in public debt to finance the plan “Continue to improve the national debt position and reduce national risks.”
“I hope no official has bought these bonds recently,” wrote Macron's former finance minister, Alfonso Prat Gay.
Two complaints were filed in the Retiro court. The first, last Thursday, was done by lawyer Ignacio Abel Uriburu, who requested the investigation of the crimes of “fraud against the public administration, violation of secrecy, violation of duties of a public official and insider trading“.
The second complaint, in turn, was filed on Friday and presented by lawyer Alejandro Sánchez Kalbermatten. “There are agents who may have encouraged a currency run by manipulating the market to generate panic and force the dollarization of Argentine savers, who we know are very sensitive to sudden fluctuations in the dollar,” he said.
“If someone did that, it was necessarily operating the GD30, buying in pesos and/or selling in dollars, especially on January 16 and 17, high volume days in the peso trading cycle.” “He used inside information related to the buyback announcement to benefit from an increase in the price of the bond in USD.”
On the same Friday, Minister Massa ordered the opening of an internal investigation for “the possible leak of confidential information.
the existence of speculative market manipulation and sale of government subtitles in markets regulated by the CNV in different settlement coins with the aim of manipulating the market and generating an increase in the parallel exchange rates commonly knowns like MEP dollar and cash-settled dollar (CCL); and identify the potential beneficiaries of these maneuvers.”
The owner of the CNV He was also summoned to appear before the Court. There he learned of the second complaint, filed that day, which had been presented to the 6th Federal Police.
As it was the same condemned act, the number of courts in which the first was sought increased: in the Capuchetti court, who cited Federal Department of Justicel to consider continue with the investigation.
Gonzalez, The prosecutor said in his opinion that the case has not yet been started. Ultimately, this will be the result of gathering information for you to ask the judge to make a decision.
The representative of federal Department of Justice He requested clarification from the business community on how the process of repurchasing securities was carried out based on said decision.
It wants to detail which values were effectively subject to the measure and if after the date (01-18-23) their price increased in relation to their historical values.
The lawyer also alleged the violation of stock market secrecy by which the National Securities Directorate “is obliged to list the natural and legal persons that acquire securities denominated in dollars, in the weeks prior to the execution of the purchase decision of the National Government. , in foreign currency,” said the sources consulted.
Another measure to promote research is that the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic, as financial agent of the Treasury, report how the buyback provided for in resolution no. 1/2023.
And, in that context, Gonzalez He proposed calling the president of the CNV Sebastian Negri, who was commissioned by Massa to clarify what happened.
“Without prejudice to the description of the above facts, which can be classified prima facie, the president of the National Securities delegation is summoned to rule on the investigation ordered by the Minister of Economy, as well as to explain what the factors that can determine the increase in the volume traded in securities with these characteristics and, in general, explain how these purchases and sales of negotiable volumes are carried out in the money market,” said the Prosecutor's Office.