Guillermo Reinwick

Guillermo Reinwick is an Argentinian businessman who is implicated in the Boudougate scandal, which erupted in 2012.

He is the owner of a chain of cafés in Buenos Aires shopping malls, but became well known for his involvement in Boudougate. The son-in-law of one of the owners of Ciccone Calcográfica, Argentina's largest printing company, which was in deep debt and had been ordered to declare bankruptcy, Reinwick helped arrange meetings with Amado Boudou, then Minister of the Economy and later Vice President, that led to the purchase of 70% of the printing firm by a Dutch-registered company called The Old Fund, and to new government printing contracts. The Old Fund was later shown to be a shell company, and Reinwick, who had been identified as its controlling shareholder, was shown to be a front for Boudou and his business partner José María Nuñez Carmona.

In his earliest testimony in the Boudougate trial before Judge Ariel Lijo, Reinwick denied that the resurrection of the printing firm had involved any wrongdoing and that Boudou had anything to do with the firm's resurrection. In later testimony, however, Reinwick accused Boudou and Núñez Carmona of criminal activity while insisting that he himself had done nothing irregular. At first considered a witness in the trial, Reinwick was later named a defendant and charged by Lijo with bribery.

Career Reinwick began his career as part owner of a solarium in the district of San Martín. This was before his marriage to Maria Lorena Ciccone, the daughter of Nicolás Ciccone, whose family firm Ciccone Calcográfica was Argentina's largest printing company, printing Argentinian currency, passports, and other official documents.

Reinwick later became the part owner of a chain of cafés called Francesca that are located at various shopping centers in Buenos Aires: Patio Bullrich, Alto Palermo, Galerías Pacífico, and Dot Baires. His nickname is “El Cafatero”.

Testimony Reinwick testified in the Boudougate trial of February 2012. In his testimony, Reinwick stated that the purchase of Ciccone Calcográfica by The Old Fund as a legitimate, above-board transaction, and denied that Amado Boudou had played any role in the resurrection of the printing firm, calling any suggestions to that effect “fabrications and lies.” Reinwick also accused the media of creating a “brutal pall of suspicion” around the company that threatened its survival. Reinwick stated that Vandenbroele was not the real owner of CVS, but maintained that Vandenbroele was its real director. Reinwick denied that any irregular activity had been involved in Vandenbroele's purchase of Ciccone, saying that Vandenbroele had merely “provided the legal structures necessary to achieve the lifting of the bankruptcy” and had arranged for “the necessary funding.”

In his new testimony, Reinwick disowned the testimony he had given in February 2012, and stated that Boudou was in fact the man behind the revival of Ciccone Calcográfica, and that he (Reinwick) and the Ciccone brothers had met with Boudou twice, first at the offices of Telefé and then at a restaurant in Puerto Madero.

Criminal charges Prosecutor Jorge Di Lello officially charged Reinwick and Nicolás Ciccone with crimes in February 2014. On May 30, 2014, Judge Ariel Lijo ordered them to testify. Reinwick testified on June 12, 2014, this time not as a witness to other people's possible crimes but as a subject of investigation.

In a document addressed to Judge Lijo, submitted in May 2014 to supplement new testimony that he gave in the case, Reinwick stated that he did not understand why the prosecutor had filed charges against him, but said that “if this is the price I have to pay for having contributed a grain of sand to the uncovering of the most important facts about corruption in the Republic of Argentina during the last few years, then I accept.”

Comments to Jorge Lanata Appearing on Jorge Lanata's television program Periodismo para todos in June 2014, with his lawyer Carlos Vela, Reinwick “sought to distance himself from the shady sale of the printing company to The Old Fund” and “made harsh accusations,”

Indictment In a June 27, 2014, indictment, Judge Lijo charged that Boudou and his associates had conspired with the Ciccone family, including Reinwick, in a scheme designed to enrich all of the participants. Lijo described Reinwick and Nicolás Ciccone as having perpetrated an act of bribery, giving 70% of the printing firm to Boudou and his associates in exchange for an arrangement that they hoped would bring them profit.

Reinwick stated in late July 2014 that he and the Ciccone family had been “deceived” by the government and that he was “mortified” to be involved in anything with a person like Boudou.

Perjury charges Reinwick and Nicolás Ciccone were accused of perjury by lawyers for Boudou and Núñez Carmona, who argued that the two men had lied to Judge Lijo in an effort to further their own economic interests. In May 2014, Federal Judge Luis Rodriguez was asked to examine the accusations and to determine whether Reinwick and his father-in-law should be formally charged with perjury. Federal prosecutor Ramiro Gonzalez requested that the charges be dismissed, on the grounds that Reinwick and Ciccone had gone from being witnesses to defendants and were therefore no longer under oath. Rodriguez dismissed the accusations, but in August 2014, Ramiro and Dario Rubinska, lawyers for Núñez Carmona, appealed his decision.

In November 2014, Federal prosecutor Germán Moldes endorsed the indictment of Reinwick and Ciccone by Judge Lijo.