Shared Dreams: Julio De Vido was acquitted and José López, Fatala, and the Schoklender brothers were sentenced in suspension

The Federal Oral Court 5 issued a ruling in the case Shared Dreams, which investigated the massive embezzlement of public funds allocated to the Madres de Plaza de Mayo Foundation between 2005 and 2011 for the social housing construction project. Despite the damage caused to the public treasury, the verdict exempted the main accused from effective prison sentences by imposing suspended sentences and acquittals.

The ruling was signed by judges Adriana Paliotti, Adrián Grünberg, and Daniel Obligado, who determined that none of the convicted defendants will go to jail until the decision is finalized. It is worth noting that judges Adrián Grünberg and Daniel Obligado were part of the majority that in 2021 acquitted former president Cristina Kirchner in the case Los Sauces-Hotesur, a measure that was later revoked by the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation. On this occasion, the oral court ordered that the reading of the grounds for the sentence take place on November 13.

On an individual level, the judicial resolution imposed the following suspended sentences and acquittals:

Julio De Vido (former Minister of Federal Planning): He was acquitted by majority. The former official attended the verdict via videoconference from his estate in Zárate, where he is under house arrest. Despite this acquittal, Julio De Vido has 5 convictions in federal court: for the Once Tragedy (4 years of effective prison), "Junk Trains" (4 years), GNL (4 years), Odebrecht (3 years suspended) and the Skanska case (5 years and perpetual disqualification).

José López (former Secretary of Public Works): He was sentenced by majority to 2 years and 9 months of suspended prison and perpetual disqualification from holding public office, being considered co-author criminally responsible for the crime of aggravated fraudulent administration committed against the public administration. With this verdict, José López now has 5 convictions against him. He previously accumulated three firm convictions unified into 13 years of prison (for the bags with USD 9 million in General Rodríguez, illegal possession of a weapon, and the Road Works case), in addition to a 5-year sentence and perpetual disqualification in the Skanska case. He followed the hearing via videoconference from the Ezeiza prison.

Abel Fatala (former Undersecretary of Public Works): He received a sentence of 2 years and 9 months of suspended prison and perpetual disqualification from holding public office, being found co-author criminally responsible for fraudulent administration.

Sergio Schoklender (former attorney of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo Foundation): He was sentenced by majority to 2 years and 8 months of suspended prison as a necessary participant and co-author criminally responsible for fraudulent administration. Sergio Schoklender previously had a life sentence for the murder of his parents in 1981 (sentence imposed in 1985), having regained parole in 1995.

Pablo Schoklender (former administrator of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo Foundation): He was sentenced by majority to 2 years and 4 months of suspended prison for fraudulent administration. He also had a life sentence as a co-author of the murder of his parents (issued in 1986), with parole granted in 2001.

Unanimous acquittals: The court acquitted Claudio Freidin (former advisor to the Secretariat of Public Works), Carlos Castellano (former Planning official), Daniel Nasif (former president of the Provincial Institute of Housing and Urbanism of Santiago del Estero), and Silvia Karina Nasif (former administrative officer of the government of Santiago del Estero).

The case examined the diversion of $206,438,454.05 that was intended for the construction of social housing. This amount was part of a total fund of nearly 900 million pesos that between 2008 and 2011 the government of Cristina Kirchner transferred to the Madres de Plaza de Mayo Foundation to carry out the works. It is worth noting that the then head of the entity, Hebe de Bonafini, had been sent to trial in this case before her death in 2022.

The works were awarded directly under an exclusivity condition and were concentrated in provinces and municipalities politically linked to the national government of those years. The distribution of the project covered the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the Buenos Aires municipalities of Tigre, Almirante Brown, and Ezeiza, the cities of Rosario and Santa Fe, San Carlos de Bariloche, and the provinces of Chaco, Santiago del Estero, and Misiones. A large part of the housing developments were left abandoned or were never built, forcing municipal governments to complete them with state resources, while the project workers did not receive their wages or the corresponding contributions.

As part of the sentence, the Federal Oral Court 5 ordered the seizure of more than 200 million pesos that must be returned to the State and adjusted for inflation when the verdict becomes final.

The verdict was known after 6 months of oral debate with weekly sessions in Comodoro Py and a mixed modality, following 15 years of judicial proceedings initiated in 2011 by a journalistic investigation by Clarín. The resolution occurred on the verge of prescription, regarding which the defenses requested the closure of the case invoking article 354 of the Procedural Code and arguing that the 6-year period expired taking the citation to trial of July 8, 2020 as the limit. For his part, the Attorney General Diego Velasco rejected that argument, setting the deadline on September 15, 2020, and pointing out the suspension of deadlines for defendants linked to public office.

During the trial, prosecutor Diego Velasco and the representative of the Financial Information Unit, Marianella Teich, had requested sentences of 6 years of prison and special disqualification for Julio De Vido, José López, Abel Fatala, Sergio Schoklender, and Pablo Schoklender, in addition to requesting 4 years for the rest of the accused. In his accusatory grounds, prosecutor Diego Velasco emphasized:

“It has been demonstrated how through a criminal scheme devised and organized from the national state in collusion with those responsible for the 'Shared Dreams Mission' project of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo Foundation, both Sergio and Pablo Schoklender, as attorneys, awarded public works for the construction of social housing and hospitals in different provinces aligned with the national government of those years”.

Finally, after hearing the sentence in Comodoro Py, Sergio Schoklender lashed out at the Justice, stating that the judges “did not dare, after 15 years, to recognize the nonsense they had done”. The former attorney added that “this is Comodoro Py”, asserted that “not a single cent was diverted”, and argued that imposing a sentence of 2 years and 8 months suspended demonstrates that the penalty applied is purely symbolic.