Previous rulings by the judges in the Hotesur–Los Sauces cases: the "K money route," López's bags, and Oil Combustibles

Last Friday, the trial against Cristina and Máximo Kirchner began over the alleged money laundering of businessmen close to power through their hotels. It is not the first time that the judges of Hotesur-Los Sauces have tried complaints against figures of Kirchnerism. The track record of the court's members also includes cases such as José López's bags at the convent, the documents of a car attributed to Amado Boudou, the memorandum with Iran, and the future dollar, among others. According to LA NACION's reconstruction based on rulings, resolutions, and public records, the judges of the court in charge of Hotesur - Los Sauces have issued convictions of former Kirchnerist officials, acquittals of businessmen close to that political space, and a dismissal of the former president herself that was later revoked. The Hotesur - Los Sauces trial court is presided over by José Antonio Michilini. Completing the trio are Adriana Palliotti, head of Federal Oral Court 5, and Fernando Machado Pelloni. Judge José Antonio MichiliniRicardo PristuplukMichilini was part of the first court in the case over the Memorandum with Iran. He acquitted Cristina Kirchner and the rest of the defendants. At that time, the three judges concluded that there was no crime in the signing of that agreement. That ruling was appealed to the Cassation Chamber, which, with the signatures of judges Diego Barroetaveña and Daniel Petrone, revoked the acquittal. The case reached the Supreme Court, which upheld that ruling and ordered a new trial. Months earlier, however, Michilini had refused to close another case against the former president. He was part of the majority that denied the dismissal of Cristina Kirchner, Axel Kicillof, and the rest of the defendants in the future dollar case. It was the Cassation Court that, in April 2021, dismissed them all. The Supreme Court upheld that decision in December 2024. His record also includes other decisions adverse to former Kirchnerist officials. In 2017, he voted in dissent to convict Amado Boudou for the alleged falsification of documents in the transfer of a car. His two other colleagues dismissed him. José López bringing the bags into the conventIn June 2019, he sentenced former Public Works Secretary José López to 6 years in prison for illicit enrichment and ordered the seizure of the US$8,982,047 that the former official tried to hide in a convent in General Rodríguez, to be allocated to the Garrahan and Gutiérrez hospitals. As a member of Oral Criminal Economic Court 1, he sentenced Alberto Samid to 4 years in prison for having been part of an illicit association that evaded taxes in the meat business. And in December 2024, he read the verdict that convicted Marcelo Balcedo's associates, former head of the SOEME union, for illicit association, fraudulent administration, and money laundering. Palliotti is the only member of the current court presiding over the Hotesur - Los Sauces trial who has already voted in this case, and she did so in the minority. In 2021, she opposed returning control of the intervened companies to the Kirchner family, and argued at the time that the trial was "the only scenario to establish with certainty the consequent criminal responsibilities of the defendants and thereby define the final destination of the assets." Judge Adriana PalliottiRicardo PristuplukIn November of that year, she was the only one who voted against dismissing Cristina Kirchner and her children without a trial. She described the defense's arguments as "mere reiterations of arguments attempted and resolved in previous instances." Two years later, the Cassation Court revived the case. In February 2021, from TOF 4, Palliotti was part of the court in charge of the case known as "the K money route." On that occasion, she convicted Lázaro Báez, among other defendants. In her vote, she wrote that "the funds originated mainly through acts of state and corporate corruption." That argument is similar to the one the prosecution now maintains: that the money that circulated through the Kirchner family's hotels and properties would come from public works awarded to Báez, who once again sits in the defendants' dock alongside the former president. In December 2018, she voted to release Boudou on bail. That decision clarified that the former vice president had to comply with the mandatory use of an electronic ankle bracelet. Despite that, the Cassation Court revoked the decision and the former vice president returned to prison. Judge Machado PelloniRicardo PristuplukThe third member of the Hotesur - Los Sauces court is Machado Pelloni, who has also had to judge former Kirchnerist officials and businessmen close to that political space. He formed the majority that convicted Ricardo Echegaray, former head of the AFIP, to 4 years and 8 months in the Oil Combustibles case, which investigated an alleged improper withholding of some 8 billion pesos corresponding to the Fuel Transfer Tax (ITC). That ruling also decided to acquit Cristóbal López and Fabián de Sousa, who are present in this new Hotesur-Los Sauces trial. According to his reasoning, it had not been proven that the businessmen had acted in connivance with the official, and that the duty to protect the interests of the State fell on the federal administrator. The Supreme Court plans to review that ruling before the end of the year. López and De Sousa are among the defendants in Hotesur - Los Sauces. That is, one of the judges who must evaluate whether López and De Sousa participated in a money laundering scheme with the Kirchner family is the same one who, five years ago, concluded that their connivance with a Kirchnerist official had not been proven in another case. In the current case, the prosecution maintains that the money from the taxes that Oil Combustibles did not pay reached the Kirchner family through rentals. In recent months, Machado Pelloni has served on courts that imposed other sentences. In July, he convicted the members of the so-called "container mafia" for a smuggling scheme with a fiscal loss of at least US$4.5 million. In September, he sentenced Eva Pereyra, "Aunt Eva," leader of the Templo Filadelfia, to 24 years for trafficking and reduction to servitude. By Ignacio Grimaldi