Macri linked with illegal funds

The Panama Papers aren’t Argentine President Mauricio Macri’s only links to questionable money. The president’s party also broke election finance rules during his race for the country’s top office last year by receiving nearly US$200,000 from government contractors forbidden from making campaign contributions, an investigation by the Argentine online publication Chequeado revealed Saturday.

The illegal funds came from some 33 public relations agents, 20 members of private security companies, seven construction company employees, and four urban sanitation managers, all with ties to Buenos Aires government or provincial contracts contracts, according to Chequeado, an Argentine site dedicated to the “verification of public discourse.”

These campaign contributions, which violate the country’s electoral finance laws that prohibit government contracted companies from donating to political parties due to conflicts of interest, added up to 2.7 million Argentine pesos, or nearly US$190,000.

Argentina outlaws political parties from receiving “direct or indirect contributions or donations from companies contracted for public services or works of the nation, provinces, municipalities, or the city of Buenos Aires,” according to the country’s Financing Law.

During elections, the rule also extends to all private corporations, which are only allowed to support political parties for day-to-day activities, not election campaigns.

According to Chequeado, if election donations from high-ranking individuals of companies without state tenders are added up with those from state contractors, Macri’s party received at least 5 million Argentine pesos, or nearly US$350,000, from technically illegal donors.