From prison, Lázaro Báez gave orders to exploit his seized assets

A judicial investigation has reconstructed the illicit framework through which businessman Lázaro Báez issued orders from a phone inside the Ezeiza prison and was part of the "executive leadership" of an organization that administered assets that had belonged to him but were subject to forfeiture in various corruption cases. So far, the judicial investigation known as the "Coirón Case" has documented movements of some 390 million pesos over eight months, according to the data presented at the court hearing before the Federal Justice of Río Gallegos. Báez and the other detainees participated in the hearing via videoconference. Báez grew rich thanks to Kirchnerism and became the main beneficiary of public works in Santa Cruz. The prosecutorial investigation does not describe isolated incidents, but rather a stable organization headed by Báez. What does that mean? That from prison, the Kirchnerist businessman was administering and putting into circulation assets of illicit origin that should have been in the custody of the courts. Báez is serving a 15-year prison sentence, with forfeiture of his assets. However, he relied on a network made up of at least 12 people who are charged in the case in order to profit from the properties. On Tuesday, Báez's cell in the Ezeiza wing was raided and he was placed incommunicado. According to judicial sources, notebooks were seized from him containing details of money transactions involving assets, rentals, ranches, income from warehouses, and rentals of apartments and other properties that are subject to forfeiture and that, nevertheless, he had managed to keep out of judicial control. In that way he had managed to move at least 390 million pesos in eight months. The discovery in Báez's cell was made alongside 27 simultaneous raids carried out last month in Río Gallegos, El Calafate, two ranches, and the city of Buenos Aires. The raids were ordered as part of two connected cases investigating money laundering and drug trafficking, which share recurring figures. The first people arrested in the case were Báez's partner, Claudia Insaurralde, Cristian Sebastián Ibañez, and his partner, at the Ezeiza Airport shortly after arriving on a flight from Río Gallegos. There they were detained and held incommunicado; four large suitcases were seized from them, and they were the first arrests in a network that so far includes at least 12 people. According to a judicial summary obtained by LA NACION, federal judge Claudio Vázquez considered that there were concrete risks of flight and of obstructing the investigation, particularly in light of the raids that would be carried out the following Tuesday starting at 6 a.m., and he agreed to hold them incommunicado and ordered the simultaneous raids to proceed, as requested by the Río Gallegos Prosecutorial Unit and the Economic Crime and Money Laundering Prosecutor's Office (Procelac). The case, called the Coirón Case —named after a native plant that grows in the Patagonian steppe— is officially titled "Báez, Lázaro Antonio, Insaurralde, Claudia Noemí, Ibáñez, Cristian Sebastián and others re: asset laundering, illicit association and other offenses" and originated on September 25 from information gleaned from telephone communications that a suspect in a drug trafficking case maintained with Báez. In addition, the drug trafficking investigation, which formally gave rise to this case, connects with the money laundering case through the use of a Ford Mondeo belonging to Lázaro Báez. It also connects through the account of a defendant regarding an inspection of machinery belonging to "Uncle Lázaro" in Corrientes, and a Scania truck seized on September 24 at the Güer Aike checkpoint —the police post at the entrance to Río Gallegos— with false documentation. In this money laundering case, Báez would give directives from Federal Penitentiary Complex I of Ezeiza; beneath him operates a "trusted executive leadership" made up of Insaurralde and Ibáñez, a family ring providing logistical support, an agricultural and financial justification channel, a banking stratification node, an accounting cover, and two liaison operators with local criminal economies. In total, the concrete involvement of 12 defendants is mentioned. The ties are romantic partnerships, kinship, and stable operational subordination, and Ibáñez addressed Báez and Insaurralde as "Uncle" and "Aunt." According to a report that is part of the case regarding the accounts of Ibáñez and another of the defendants, between December 1, 2025 and August 7, 2026, there are 677 transactions totaling 380,620,089 pesos. The investigation, according to what LA NACION was able to reconstruct with judicial sources, maintains that the organization was not built with new companies, as is customary. It would have operated on a pre-existing and judicially encumbered estate, subject to forfeiture, seizure, or judicial deposit, and in some cases with ownership already transferred. According to the prosecution, the goal was to keep it productive and divert its proceeds. The assets surveyed include the Alquinta and La Entrerriana ranches, units in a building on Zapiola Street, the companies Kank and Costilla S. A. and Austral Agro S. A., leases to three companies, the Cruz Aike ranch, a property on the waterfront of El Calafate, and two warehouses whose disposal was allegedly agreed for 250 million pesos on August 28. Also listed is a Ford Mondeo registered to Báez, now seized. The prosecution requested 27 raids on homes, including the two ranches and Báez's prison wing, as well as a general restraint on assets, freezing of accounts, lifting of banking secrecy, and the declaration of a complex case. The provisional classification includes aggravated money laundering, illicit association, fraudulent insolvency, and fraud. By Mariela Arias, Nicolás Pizzi