Steve Herrick

Chapter 4 The closure “We were very happy about the World Cup, without knowing what was happening around us. We only saw the personalities who paraded by the hotel, while outside, people were being killed,” remembers Arminda Palacios, one of the members of the cooperative who worked at the hotel since its founding, or more precisely, a month prior to its opening. Arminda’s memory and that of other hotel workers takes on another dimension in the present. Currently, the BAUEN… Read More »BAUEN, day 25

What really had happened was very different: Bauen SACIC had accepted a plan in fifteen payments, of which it only made the first. That is, Giordano was making his demand on the basis of an arrangement that had expired for lack of payment, and on top of then, tried to make the State pay the costs of the trial. As we see, it is a constant in the conduct of the Iurcoviches to finance themselves one way or another with… Read More »BAUEN, day 24

The debts to the Government of the City of Buenos Aires Between 1991 and 1993, when its registered name was still Bauen SACIC, the business fell into debt to the City of Buenos Aires for non-payment of taxes on gross income (II.BB.) and for fees for streetlights, street sweeping, and maintenance (ABL) for the sum of AR$794,640.54. To deal with this debt, the business accepted a payment plan, as recorded in the General Directorate of Rents of the Government of… Read More »BAUEN, day 23

The attempts to collect the remainder through the Banco Nación, the entity that managed the residual portfolio of the BANADE, included an agreement in 1994 with Bauen SACIC for six million dollars. At that time, parity of 1 peso = 1 dollar (Convertibility Law of 1991) was in effect, which established a more than favorable agreement for the Iurcoviches, since it notably reduced the original amount. Even so, the Iurcoviches would again fail to fulfill their agreements.1 According to calculations… Read More »BAUEN, day 22

The contract signed with Bauen SACIC stipulated a series of disbursements that the BANADE would make in return for the firm presenting certificates that gave an account of the progress of the work. Shortly after beginning, Iurcovich’s business introduced a series of modifications to the original plans approved by the bank, consisting of increased parking, an expansion of the conference hall, and the construction of a pool. The BANADE approved these modifications, but stated that the loan should be understood… Read More »BAUEN, day 21

These are the social reasons of the businesses that asked BANADE for loans they never finished paying, if they even started, or ever intended to. The liquidation of the National Bank of Development during the government of Carlos Menem facilitated things things for them. Gaglianone Establecimiento Gráfico SACI is currently the recovered business Chilavert Graphic Arts Worker Cooperative, Ltd., while Electrodomésticos Aurora SA was rebaptized by the workers as Renacer [Rebirth] Worker Cooperative, Ltd. With the exception of Sasetru, all… Read More »BAUEN, day 20

The maneuvers of chaining firms that are bought and sold as a way to hide the true owners and the source of their capital, getting loans from public banks and never paying them, using debt waivers or transfers to the State, and filing lawsuits against the State to obstruct investigations (something like a thief shouting “stop, thief”), are typical tricks used by which business groups of the so-called “contractor homeland” to grow at the expense of the public treasury, and… Read More »BAUEN, day 19

Chapter 3 How to scam the State The complex business framework we have described provides the starting point for the asset-stripping and bankruptcy of the Bauen hotel, which was a scam on the treasury right from the beginning. The plot of this operation is widely detailed in a work by Federico Tonarelli (former president of the cooperative, current vice-president, and president of the Argentine Federation of Self-Managed Worker Cooperatives, FACTA) and Fabián Pierucci (economist and filmmaker, director of the documentary… Read More »BAUEN, day 18

Here is where Marcelo Iurcovich appears: according to an article published by journalist Santiago O’Donnell in the newspaper Página/12,1 his excellent relationships with the military government, especially with Brigadier General Osvaldo Cacciattore, by then the de facto mayor of the City of Buenos Aires, and with ship captain (later rear admiral) Carlos Alberto Lacoste, who was the head of the EAM 78,2 allowed Iurcovich get a very favorable loan from BANADE for the construction of a five-star hotel right at… Read More »BAUEN, day 17

The Iurcoviches Marcelo Iurcovich was born in 1923 and died April 3, 2003. He was married to Raquel Kaliman, daughter of Moisés Israel Kaliman. Their son, Hugo Iurcovich, succeeded him at the head of his businesses, and he continues there today. The civilian-military dictatorship that came to power with the coup d’etat on March 24, 1976, inherited an excellent opportunity from the government of María Estela Martínez de Perón to try to bleach its image and take advantage of the… Read More »BAUEN, day 16