Madero Center is a hotel in

Puerto Madero Puerto Madero, also known within the urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Characteristics

Madero Center is a

five-star hotel Hotel ratings are often used to classify hotels according to their quality. From the initial purpose of informing travellers on basic facilities that can be expected, the objectives of hotel rating have expanded into a focus on the hotel experie ...

. It has a bar, two pools, a

solarium Solarium may refer to: * A sunroom, a room built largely of glass to afford exposure to the sun * A terrace (building) or flat housetop * The '' Solarium Augusti'', a monumental meridian line (or perhaps a sundial) erected in Rome by Emperor Augu ...

and a

sauna A sauna (, ), or sudatory, is a small room or building designed as a place to experience dry or wet heat sessions, or an establishment with one or more of these facilities. The steam and high heat make the bathers perspire. A thermometer in a ...

. It is divided in different towers, with each apartment costing nearly US$700,000. Several Argentine politicians and businessmen have bought apartments in Madero Center, such as the former Vice President Amado Boudou and the businessman Cristóbal López. The former President

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner (; born 19 February 1953), often referred to by her initials CFK, is an Argentine lawyer and politician who has served as the Vice President of Argentina since 2019. She also served as the President ...

has also bought two apartments and eight parking locations, but only as a financial investment.

Controversies

Boudougate

The Vice President Amado Boudou, a former minister of economy, is accused of abusing his position as minister to save the firm Ciccone Calcográfica from bankruptcy, as he may have had personal links with the owners and thus a

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...

. Boudou denies such links. However, his monthly fee at Madero Center is paid through Siren S.A., which is associated to "London Supply", one of the firms that finances Ciccone out of the bankruptcy.

The Route of the K-Money

Madero Center was a controversial building in 2013, when Federico Elaskar told to the TV program ''

Periodismo para todos ''Periodismo para todos'' ( es, Journalism for everybody) is an Argentine investigative journalism television program. It is hosted by the journalist Jorge Lanata, and airs on Sunday nights in '' eltrece''. It was highly critical during the Cristi ...

'' that it held a firm known as "La Rosadita", used for money laundering. This firm channeled money from the Santa Cruz Province to

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

, and from Uruguay to

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. The movements, made through shell corporations, were divided in portions of 1.5 million to avoid detection. The building has its own interior parking lot, allowing customers to move large sums of money without risk of street thieves. All new customers had to be invited by regular customers. The judicial case was assigned to the judge Sebastián Casanello, who ordered a

search and seizure Search and seizure is a procedure used in many civil law and common law legal systems by which police or other authorities and their agents, who, suspecting that a crime has been committed, commence a search of a person's property and confiscat ...

at the building. This was done several days after the airing of the TV program. The investigation suggested that the computers had info erased in those days. Nevertheless, it was discovered that "Austral Construcciones", owned by

Lázaro Báez Lázaro Báez (born 11 February 1951) is an Argentine businessman. Báez is a central figure in the so-called corruption scandal known as The Route of the K-Money, surrounding former Argentine presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández d ...

, was a client of "La Rosadita". Báez is one of the main suspects of the judicial case.

References

External links

Official website
{{coord missing, Argentina Hotels in Buenos Aires Hotels established in 2008 2008 establishments in Argentina