Martin Báez

Martin Antonio Báez is an Argentinian criminal and the son of Lázaro Báez. The younger Báez, who is a director of Austral Construcciones, a construction firm founded by his father, is, like the elder Báez, a central figure in the corruption scandal known variously as "Lázarogate" and "The Route of the K Money," the letter K being a reference to the ties enjoyed by Báez and other suspects to the presidencies of the late Néstor Kirchner and his wife, the incumbent, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

According to Perfil, Martin Báez is the single individual who has been "most compromised" by Lázarogate.

Career Martin Báez's first job was at Epsur SA, where he was a director.

Martin Báez also became a member of the boards of Del Curto y Loscalzo, Kank & Costilla, and other companies.

He also ran Teegan Martin Inc., a company created in Panama and based in Belize.

He denied to Perfil, however, that either he or his father had businesses in Panama or Belize, although Teegan was in fact founded and headquartered in those countries. After hearing that Martin Báez was involved in a scandal, the counsel and representatives of Teegan all resigned.

Jacqueline Bühlmann, spokesperson for the State Prosecutor of the Swiss Confederation, confirmed in May 2013 that the Swiss Attorney General would open formal proceedings for the prosecution of money laundering charges against Lázaro and Martin Báez, among others. This announcement came in the wake of a request by Argentinian officials that an account in the Geneva bank Lombard Odier in the name of the Teegan firm, with Martin Báez as proxy, containing $1.5 million in deposits, be frozen, along with accounts in the name of Helvetic Service Group. The bank stated that the Teegan account had already been closed some time earlier, and it was not known were the money had gone.

A May 2013 report indicated that Martin Báez and Daniel Perez Gadín had traveled together to Spain in 2011 and 2012, and to Brazil in 2012, after the Báez group had taken control of Elaskar's SGI. In addition to numerous trips by Pérez Gadín to Uruguay in 2011 and 2012, these journeys were held up as evidence of involvement in irregular international money transactions.

It was reported by the Zürich newspaper Tages Anzeiger in June 2013 that Martin Báez's account at Lombard Odier had existed between 2011 and 2012, and that the money in the account had been moved to J. Safra Sarasin in Brazil. The Swiss federal prosecutor affirmed that a criminal investigation for money laundering was underway and that an effort was being made "to get a complete picture" of Lázarogate-related events "here in Switzerland." Public prosecutor José María Campagnoli summoned Martin Báez for testimony.

Also in June 2013, Martin Báez, his brother Leandro, their father Lázaro Báez, Austral Construcciones president Julio Mendoza, and the firm's accountants Daniel Pérez Gadín and César Andrés were all named by attorney Alejandro Sánchez Kalbermatten in a complaint filed with Economic Criminal Judge Ezekiel Berón Astrada. The complaint charged them with tax evasion and other crimes that had been allegedly carried out on behalf of their firm Austral Construcciones through the use of "creative accounting." It was asked that the defendants be prohibited from leaving the country and that an audit of the company's balance sheets be prepared. The complaint also charged the defendants with irregular conduct and misconduct, mismanagement, and false balance.

It also emerged in July 2013 that security cameras revealed that Lázaro and Martin Báez had gone to Banco Santa Cruz in Rio Gallegos to access the contents of 14 safe-deposit boxes on May 29 and 30, only days before a raid that had been requested by prosecutor Guillermo Marijuán four days earlier. Cameras did not record, however, what they did when they accessed the boxes.

Casanello was invited by the Swiss Attorney General to travel to Switzerland to discuss the investigation of Martin Báez's $1.5 million bank account, and after initially accepting the proposal, inviting Marijuán to accompany him, and asking for authorization and funding to make the trip, decided against it in November 2013. Further contacts between the two governments in the matter were made by persons at lower levels.

It was reported in July 2014 that Club Boca Rio Gallegos, a football club chaired by Martín Báez, was, like him, being investigated for money laundering.