Trucks, cars, and site facilities that belonged to the firm Austral Construcciones SA, owned by the convicted businessman Lázaro Báez, have begun to be offered for auction through the official auction website of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.
This is one of the incidents in the latest chapter of the bankruptcy proceedings in the judicial case of Báez's firm, which carried out much of the public road construction work done between 2003 and 2015 in the province of Santa Cruz.
The case over the bankruptcy of Austral Construcciones was opened in 2017 and is being processed before National Commercial Court No. 28.
There, in an incident for the restitution of assets, it was ordered that a series of goods be sent for auction in the judicial auctions area, which is under the Supreme Court.
In total, six Chevrolet S10 pickup trucks are being auctioned, with a starting base price of $2,200,000; a Mercedes Benz Sprinter with an initial price of $5,100,000; and a Renault Master for $7,200,000.
In addition, eleven Tecnimet modules are also being auctioned (one in an auction with four units and another with the remaining seven), which function as site facilities alongside the road.
These are prefabricated units, similar to a shipping container, made of sheet metal, with insulating panels, a door, windows, and electrical installation. They arrive assembled by truck and rest on the ground without foundations.
They are used as offices, changing rooms and bathrooms for workers, a dining hall, storage for tools and materials, or do…
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Trucks, cars, and site facilities that belonged to the company Austral Construcciones SA, owned by convicted businessman Lázaro Báez, have begun to be offered for auction through the official auction website of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation. This is one of the incidents in the latest chapter of the bankruptcy process in the judicial case file of Báez's company, which carried out much of the public road construction work done between 2003 and 2015 in the province of Santa Cruz.
The bankruptcy case of Austral Construcciones was opened in 2017 and is being processed before National Commercial Court No. 28. There, in a restitution of assets incident, it was ordered that a series of assets be sent to auction in the judicial auctions area, which depends on the Supreme Court.
In total, six Chevrolet S10 pickup trucks are being auctioned, with a starting base price of $2,200,000; a Mercedes Benz Sprinter with an initial price of $5,100,000; and a Renault Master for $7,200,000. In addition, eleven Tecnimet modules are also being auctioned (one in an auction with four units and another with the remaining seven), which function as site facilities at the side of the road. These are prefabricated cabins, similar to a shipping container, made of sheet metal, with insulating panels, a door, windows, and electrical wiring. They arrive assembled by truck and rest on the ground without foundations.
Lázaro Báez was sentenced to 14 years in prison for fraud and money laundering in cases linked to Cristina Kirchner.
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They are used as offices, changing rooms and bathrooms for workers, dining rooms, tool and material storage, or dormitories at remote work sites, such as those in Patagonia. By judicial decision, the assets are currently in the custody of the Air Force. In each case, interested parties can view the location where they are kept and a detail of the condition of the assets.
In 2025, with the signatures of justices Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz, and Ricardo Lorenzetti, the Supreme Court created the online auction platform in order to make the auction mechanism transparent, make the process more accessible, guarantee the anonymity of bidders, and facilitate participation by people across the country, without intermediaries.
Days ago, through the website, a three-room apartment in the River View complex in Puerto Madero was auctioned, with a base price of 400,000 dollars, as well as a house in the San Diego country club, in the district of Moreno.
Currently, there are bids ranging from a three-room apartment with a garage in the city of Mar del Plata with a base price of 54,000 dollars, to the structure of an unfinished building in the Villa Urquiza neighborhood and an industrial plant in Mendoza — all assets involved in various judicial cases.
In Báez's case, most of his assets have already been sold in this bankruptcy process to pay creditors. In addition to the commercial court, the Federal Oral Tribunal 2, which convicted him in the Vialidad case, and the Federal Oral Tribunal 4, which convicted him in the "Ruta del dinero K" case, are also vying to auction off Báez's remaining assets.
The company went bankrupt in 2018 and its liquidation remains open: there have been some 45 sale incidents, mostly in Río Gallegos.
Lázaro Báez, former head of Austral Construcciones. AGUSTIN MARCARIAN - X03747
In April 2024, road machinery (motor graders, front loaders, an excavator), a semi-trailer, and vehicles were already auctioned. In September 2025, 28 lots from the former Central Site Facility of Río Gallegos were auctioned. In addition, in February 2026, improved offers were called for US$200,000 for a property in Río Gallegos. Properties and other Austral assets still in liquidation remain to be auctioned.
In the "ruta del dinero K" money laundering case, the goal is to recover at least 61 million dollars. Two airplanes have already been auctioned: a Rockwell Commander and a Learjet. Since December 2025, meanwhile, the Court has transferred more than 60 million dollars to the State. Properties remain under judicial administration pending the auction of accounts in Switzerland and the Bahamas, and stakes in nine companies (Badial, Austral Agro, Austral Atlántica, Diagonal Sur, and others).
On the other hand, the forfeiture in the Vialidad case is still pending. The tribunal approved the execution of 84 properties, most of them in Santa Cruz, to cover a joint liability judgment of 685 billion pesos. Among those assets are a 5,633-hectare ranch in Alto Río Senguer (Chubut), the Los Gurises estate of 10,000 hectares (Santa Cruz), some 60,000 square meters in El Calafate, lots in Río Gallegos, and land in Río Turbio.
By Hernán Cappiello
Type of work: Original News