Julio De Vido and José López sentenced to 5 years in Skanska corruption case

A federal court in Argentina sentenced former Planning Minister Julio De Vido and former Public Works Secretary José López to five years in prison for bribery and defrauding the state in the Skanska case, the first major corruption scandal of the Kirchner era. The verdict, delivered Monday by the Federal Oral Court No. 4 (TOF 4), also convicted several former Skanska executives and absolved 17 other defendants Source: Infobae, Clarín.

The verdict

The three-judge panel found De Vido and López guilty of passive bribery and administrative fraud for orchestrating a kickback scheme linked to the expansion of the Norte and Sur gas pipelines awarded to Swedish construction firm Skanska. Judge María Gabriela López Iñiguez dissented, arguing the crime should have been classified as incompatible negotiations rather than bribery, and that no fraud occurred because a court-ordered expert report found no overpricing Source: El Nacional. The court ordered the confiscation of about 48 million pesos (updated from 2005) Source: El Nacional.

The case and evidence

The scandal erupted in 2005 after journalist Pablo Abiad revealed in Clarín that Skanska used fake invoices from 23 shell companies to pay bribes. A key piece of evidence was a 90-minute audio recording from a 2006 raid in which Skanska executive Javier Azcárate admitted: "It was 5% of all contracts, split 3% to Enargas and 2% to Nación Fideicomisos" Source: La Voz. The case was initially closed in 2011 but reopened after the Supreme Court validated the recording in 2016 Source: La República.

Broader context

This is De Vido’s fifth corruption conviction, though only the one for the Once railway tragedy (also 5 years) is final; he currently serves house arrest. López already had a 13-year unified sentence for other cases . The trial lasted 47 hearings over two years, with 78 witnesses .