Alejandro Paul Vandenbroele is an Argentinian-Belgian lawyer and businessman who is a leading figure in the Argentinian financial scandal known both as Boudougate and as “Caso Ciccone,” which happened in February 2012.
As president of a Dutch-based firm called The Old Fund, he has been accused of being a front man for Argentinian Vice President Amado Boudou and for Boudou's business partner Núñez Carmona in a purported scheme involving the purchase and control of the printing house Ciccone Calcografica, later known as Compañía de Valores Sudamericana (American Securities Company), or CVS, which printed banknotes and documents for the government of Argentina.
[2] In July 2010, the Argentinian tax agency, the Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos (AFIP), called on Calcográfica Ciccone to declare bankruptcy.
Calcográfica Ciccone was one of Argentina's most important printers, “often working for the state on such sensitive issues as the printing of banknotes, identity documents, and passports,” and owed the national treasury 239 million pesos.
[8] A 2014 report indicated that The Old Fund was incorporated in 2008 by two Argentinians, Eduardo Alberto Razzetti and Carlos Fabian Dorado and that Vandenbroele took control of the firm as a shareholder in or shortly prior to September 2010.
In that same month, according to the same 2014 report, a firm called London Supply contributed $1.8 million to The Old Fund, one of whose shareholders at the time was Michelangelo Castilian, a longtime friend of Boudou and Núñez Carmona.
In that same month, Vandenbroele became deputy director, owner, and president of The Old Fund, another shareholder in which was Sergio Gustavo Martinez, a fugitive from justice in the United States.
At around the same time, The Old Fund was paid $7.8 million for alleged technical consultation for the government of Taiwan in regard to an exchange of public debt with Argentina, a matter in which Boudou was a central player.
Muñoz, who had been married to Vandenbroele since 2006, said that she had begun to suspect him of cheating, and while looking through his papers for evidence of an affair, she discovered documents outlining his relationship to Boudou and Núñez Carmona.
[7] On July 4 came a report that Ariel Lijo, the judge who was investigating the Ciccone Case, had asked the government agency Unidad de Información Financiera (UIF) for a document from Spain containing information about Vandenbroele's financial actions.
According to La Nación, Reinwick had signed this agreement under pressure, and had also taken responsibility for the two companies that the newspaper described as being “behind The Old Fund: the Dutch fund Tierras International Investments CV, later replaced by a US firm called LLC, and the Uruguayan firm Dusbel SA.”[20] The operation of CVS was taken over by the government in August 2012, and was placed under the direct control of the Minister of Economy, Hernán Lorenzino, and the head of the Mint, Katya Daura, both of whom reported to Boudou.
[21] In November 2012, Vandenbroele filed a document before the Criminal Court in which he claimed that Raul Moneta, a banker connected with the Kirchner administration, had financed the entire Ciccone operation.
[24] The Court of Cassation ruled on November 1, 2013, that Vandenbroele's alleged role as a front man for Boudou should be investigated, and gave particular weight to Muñoz's testimony.
[25] Muñoz said that she had been offered money to retract her statement that her ex-husband was a front man for Boudou, and that she was now celebrating the fact that “justice was done with my truths.”[26] She also said that Vandenbroele had threatened to kill her “like a dog” so that she would end up “dead in a ditch,” or to commit her to a mental hospital so that “no one will believe you.”[27] It was reported on November 2, 2013, that the bank accounts of Dusbel, Vandenbroele's company in Uruguay, had been frozen by Uruguayan Judge Néstor Valetti at the request of prosecutor Juan Gomez.
[21] In early February 2014, Laura Muñoz told Radio Mitre that she did not regret having stated two years earlier that Vandenbroele was Boudou's front man.
Vandenbroele told the judge he wanted to answer questions later and expand his statement, and left a letter outlining the main points of his defense.