Sergio Tasselli

Sergio Tasselli is an Italian-Argentinian businessman. He is the head of one of the largest business groups in Argentina and has been called “the most successful businessman of recent times” in that country.

As of 2004, he has been running “twenty companies operating in the generation and distribution of power, metallurgy (Materfer, Electroaleaciones, Aceros Zapla), petrochemicals (Bermúdez), agricultural machinery (Agrinar), and the food sector (Bruning Mill).” His offices are on Avenida Cerviño, in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo.

Tasselli has been described as having benefited greatly from the program of privatization during the Menem presidency and then having profited under the subsequent presidencies of Nestor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. The Argentinian media routinely describe him as a “K businessman,” or Kirchner businessman – that is, someone who has profited from his connections to the Kirchner government. La Nación stated in 2004 that here is “always a pall of suspicion” hanging over his businesses.

As a young man, he was reportedly a member of the Montoneros, a left-wing guerrilla and subversive group of the 1960s and 70s. Indymedia describes Tasselli as having been a “front man” for Menem, benefiting from “all the government concessions” during Menem's presidency. “Because of subsidies received from the government,” Indymedia maintains, “Tasselli is the most powerful businessman in Argentina.”

Tasselli runs such firms as the Grupo Metropolitano and the electricity companies Edecat (Catamarca) and Edefor (Formosa), but he is not legally listed as the owner or principal shareholder of most of his firms. Instead, the companies are listed variously in the names of his five children and his brother Alberto.

Tasselli's other firms include, or have included, Trainmet SA, Trainmet Servicios SA, Tecnica Industrial SA, Socieded Inmobiliaria del Nuevo Puerto, General Plasticos SA, CES SA, Alta Tension SA, Circum SA, SI GE SA, WLI Servicios SA, Compania Desmonte SA, Trainmet Ciccone Servicios SA, Finca Los Alerces SA, Mic. Inversiones Peri SA, Yacimientos del Sur SA, Flio Morado 53, IATE – Astra SA, IATE – Y.P.F., Zapla Holdings SA, Trainmet Seguros SA, Centrales Termicas SA, Centrales Termicas del NEA SA, Centrales Termicas Patagonica SA, Centrales Termicas Sorrento SA, Transnea SA, Transnoa SA, Empresa de Distribucion de Energia Electrica SA, IATE SA, Rafaela Alimentos SA, Retroquimica Bermudez SA, Red de los Supermercados SA, Curticor SA, San Jorge Mayorista de Alimentos SA, Materfer SA. During the years when he ran YCRT, the Argentinian government paid $22.5 million annually in subsidies for the mines. Tasselli's control of the mines ended in a scandal that saw the mines re-nationalized in 2001.

When an explosion and collapse took place at one of the mines in 2004, killing 14 miners, Tasselli was accused of having caused it. Miners' union spokespeople attributed the mine disaster “directly to the lack of investment” in YCRT by Tasselli.

A lawyer for the miners' union, Safrani Bernardino, directly accused Kirchner and Tasselli of responsibility for the 14 miners' deaths. Bernardino said that the workers had died as a consequence of “apathy” on the part of Tasselli and others who had made them “work as if they were animals.” The miners were, Bernardino said, the victims of a “coincidence of interests and politics.” According to charges, he had not invested “a single penny of the $ 22.5 million received per year in subsidies” in new machinery, necessary safety measures, or in the opening of new mines. Tasselli was accused by Torres of emptying the coal company, mismanagement, smuggling, diverting state funds, engaging in accounting maneuvers to evade taxes, failing to return movable and immovable state property placed in his charge, allowing locomotives and rolling stock to fall into disrepair, and violating production commitments. On November 23, 2011, Torres ordered Tasselli to stand trial and ordered a seizing of his assets until the state could recover 45 million pesos that he was accused of having defrauded from YCRT.

On February 7, 2012, Wanzo filed with the Court of Appeals for recovery of assets that Tasselli had allegedly stolen from YCRT.

Edecat His electrical firm in Catamarca, Edecat, was allegedly involved in 2003 in what La Nacion described as a $10 million “scam.”

In December 2002, the Duhalde government passed a measure under which Tasselli, as owner of Metropolitano, was given 400,000 pesos a day in government subsidies while, according to widespread complaints, not investing any of that money in the railroad. Critics of his management of the railway assets have long objected to what they describe as a suspect relationship between Tasselli and the Minister of Planning and Public Investment, Julio De Vido. One point of contention was his dismissal of what was described as “the effective staff of former Ferrocarriles Argentinos,” which had provided the railway lines with maintenance and security, and hired in its place an allegedly less efficient company called Industrial Technical SA, which is owned by the Tasselli group. Moreover, Tasselli was accused of stealing machinery, tools, lathes, and other equipment from the railroads that ended up “as if by magic” at other Tasselli firms. “Tasselli would never have carried out such theft without the complicity of the government,” maintained IndyMedia.

Parmalat In September 2004, Tasselli bought the Argentinian subsidiary of the Italian dairy group Parmalat. Ten days after taking control of Parmalat Argentina, in order to restructure the firm, whose name they had changed to Compañía Láctea del Sur, Tasselli's group filed for bankruptcy on behalf of the firm.

Centrales Térmicas Patagónicas Among the many firms run by Tasselli is the electrical firm Centrales Térmicas Patagónicas, which owns electrical generators in Puerto Madryn, Comodoro Rivadavia, and Pico Truncado, filed for reorganization in June 2009. At the time it was owned 17% by Sergio Tasselli, 17% by IATE (a firm owned by Tasselli and his brother Alberto), 17% by Luz y Fuerza, 25.88% by Chubut, 13.12% by the Argentinian government, and 10% by its employees.

Tasselli's firm Molinos Bruning, based in Santa Fe, was sued in provincial federal court by the AFIP for tax evasion. Complaints about irregularities in the firm led to three searches, performed at two locations in Santa Fe (San Jorge and Rosario) and one in Tucumán.

The Argentinian government fined Edesur $280,000 for breach of contract.

It was reported on August 17, 2013, that Tasselli had a Swiss bank account for the Edefor firm in the amount of $5.4 million, and that he was being investigated for money laundering by the Finance Intelligence Unit Suisse. He reportedly held several Swiss accounts in his own name. Among the irregular transactions investigated by the Swiss was a transfer of $7.4 million from an account in his name n ABN Amro Bank to another Dutch account. Also he transferred almost $20 million from the Royal Bank of Canada to an account in Geneva in his name. Also, he deposited $3 million in various Swiss banks. The suspicious deposits took place between August 2003 and April 2009. Swiss authorities asked Tasselli to explain the transactions but as of August 7 had received no reply. Consequently, Swiss federal prosecutor Frederic Schaller requested cooperation in the matter from Argentina's Ministry of Justice.

ATE slogan In 2000 the union of Argentinian government workers, ATE, popularized a slogan: “Tasselli Out!”