Claudio Uberti

Claudio Uberti (born December 3, 1957) is a former Argentine government official who attained political power through personal ties to the former president Néstor Kirchner, becoming head under Kirchner of the Órgano de Control de Concesiones Viales (OCCOVI), the federal agency that regulates highway concessions.

During his tenure at OCCOVI, Uberti was also a key figure in the arrangement of trade deals between Argentine and Venezuelan firms under the Néstor Kirchner and Hugo Chávez administrations. He was described at the time as a sort of “parallel” ambassador from Buenos Aires to Caracas, and was an intimate of both Kirchner and Chávez.

Uberti gained prominence a result of the 2007 Maletinazo or "suitcase scandal", in which a suitcase containing nearly $800,000 was seized by Buenos Aires airport police from a passenger on a diplomatic flight of which Uberti was in charge. As a consequence of this seizure, Uberti was ultimately charged with smuggling, money laundering, and the solicitation of bribes. Charges against him were eventually dropped, although an FBI probe concluded that Uberti had been transporting an illegal campaign donation from Hugo Chávez to Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

His nicknames are “Pachi” and “Ubi.”

Early life and education Uberti was born in a town of 7000 people in the county of General Lopez in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, on December 3, 1957. His father, Eugenio, was a construction worker and his mother Élida, was a hairdresser. His paternal grandfather had come to Buenos Aires from Italy in 1893 at age 16.

Perfil stated in October 2008 that in his hometown, Uberti, whose nickname since childhood has been “Pachi,” was “known for his 'erratic behavior' and for scams and swindles. He was “a person who was always in strange things” and whose “affection for money led him down different paths.” One acquaintance of his youth said: “Pachi never enjoyed working, he enjoyed the good life.”

At 18 he went to Rosario to study law, but left in his third year while working at a bank. During his time in Rosario, he tried to sell a car for which he did not have the proper papers. He also caused a local scandal by gaining access to a professor's house by pretending to be her boyfriend, an incident which landed him in jail. On one occasion in the late 1970s, he pushed a girlfriend off a balcony, almost killing her, and again ended up in the Rosario jail. After his release, he “took refuge” in Santa Cruz.

Eventually he moved to Rio Gallegos, where he worked as an installer of ceramic tiles. He met his wife, Patricia Palacios, there. It was also in Rio Gallegos that he met and befriended Rudy Ulloa, the driver for Néstor Kirchner. Uberti, Ulloa, and Julio de Vido worked together to raise funds for Néstor Kirchner's 2003 election campaign.

OCCOVI When Néstor Kirchner became president, Uberti was named head of OCCOVI. He reported to his friend Julio de Vido, who had been installed as Minister of Planning. Founded in 2003, OCCOVI controlled all freeway concessions and was in charge of collecting the tolls on every toll road, highway, and bridge in the country. As head of OCCOVI, he was known jocularly as “el señor de los peajes,” or “the lord of the tolls.” Cronista reported in August 2007 that his contacts in politics and business universally described him as an “obedient” Kirchnerist “soldier.” who was on intimate terms with both Néstor Kirchner and Hugo Chávez. In June 2010, Clarin reported on a secret cable in which Arnold confirmed that he had traveled to Caracas with Uberti and de Vito in April 2005, and that their activities there had been kept secret from the then Argentine ambassador to Venezuela, Eduardo Sadous.

Residents of his hometown said that after Uberti became a part of the national government, he did a great deal to help the area.

Despite de Vido's demand that Uberti step down, it was apparently widely understood that de Vido “must have known about the illegal transfer” of funds, “since those familiar with the Kirchner regime say that nothing happens without De Vido’s approval.” In an August 2011 radio interview, Wilson called Uberti a “criminal” and said that the suitcase of money with which he had been caught was not his but Uberti's. He said that the PDVSA head had introduced him to Uberti, “the third man of Argentina,” and that he, Wilson, did not like the looks of Uberti. At the airport, where, he said, Bereziuk had given Uberti “two kisses like the mafiosos,” Bereziuk had asked Wilson to help her with a suitcase. This, Wilson said in the 2011 interview, was the suitcase that had been seized from him by the police at the airport.

An investigation by the FBI resulted in the conclusion that the money in Wilson's suitcase had been a contribution by Hugo Chávez to Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's 2007 presidential election campaign. She called this claim “garbage.” Other theories proposed in the media were that the money was intended for pro-Chávez groups in Argentina, was “a kickback to Argentine government officials for a business deal,” was “a bribe for ENARSA,” or that “some renegade PDVSA officials wanted to get some cash out of the party, creating personal reserves for a foreseeable end of the Venezuelan bonanza.”

Uberti sued Sadous on June 28, 2010, accusing him of perjury. Uberti asked Federal Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral to examine testimony Sadous had given before Federal Judge Julián Ercolini, in the course of which Sadous had made his charges about the alleged bribery. Uberti maintained that there were contradictions in Sadous's testimony, and asked Canicoba Corral to summon Sadous to testify.

Later activities Perfil reported on August 4, 2012, that five years after the Wilson scandal, Uberti was still involved in oil transactions with Venezuela, advising firms on oil deals with PDVSA. As of 2012, according to Perfil, he was under investigation to determine whether he was involved in a scheme to force bribes out of Argentine businessmen who wanted to export goods to Venezuela.

In December 2013, federal prosecutor Carlos Rivolo asked Judge Sebástian Casanello to try Uberti and Ricardo Jaime, former Minister of Transportation, because Uberti, as head of OCCoVI, had allowed Jaime to use as his own a Honda Civic owned by OCCAVI.

Personal life Uberti and his wife have three children, María Florencia, Claudio, and María Cecilia.