Argentine prosecutors requested the seizure of over 5 million dollars in the name of Florencia Kirchner, daughter of former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, after Banco Galicia confirmed to the judiciary that the funds, which have been frozen for a decade, remain available.
Banco Galicia confirmed to the Argentine judiciary the availability of the substantial sum, and according to a report published by La Nación, prosecutors Diego Luciani and Sergio Mola requested that these funds be included in the forfeiture process of the Vialidad case, for which Cristina Kirchner is serving a six-year prison sentence confirmed by the Supreme Court in June 2025.
The money was seized in 2016 by Judge Julián Ercolini during the investigation of the Hotesur-Los Sauces case, which examines alleged money laundering through the Kirchner family's hotels in Patagonia.
The funds are broken down as follows: 4,664,000 dollars found in a safe deposit box, plus 1,032,144 dollars and 53,280 pesos in two savings accounts.
The bank's delay in responding to the court request had raised concerns in the courts, but the institution finally confirmed last Monday that the money is available.
These more than five million are part of a second group of assets that the Federal Oral Court 2 (TOF 2) is currently examining, along with 13 properties belonging to the Kirchner family and 128 properties owned by companies linked to businessman Lázaro Báez.
A first block of 111 properties —84 belonging to Báez, 19 to Máximo and Florencia Kirchner, and one to the former president— has already been seized by TOF 2 and confirmed by the Federal Court of Cassation, although the defenses have appealed to the Supreme Court.
The total amount to be recovered in the Vialidad case amounts to 684.990 billion Argentine pesos (over 450 million dollars), adjusted for inflation from the original 84.835 billion. None of the convicted individuals voluntarily deposited this sum within the ten business days granted by the court.
Although Florencia Kirchner was cleared in the Hotesur-Los Sauces case, the court upheld the seizure of her funds, considering that the source of the money remained under suspicion.
This situation introduces a complication: the Federal Oral Court 5, which is handling the Hotesur-Los Sauces case—whose first preparatory hearing took place last week—might object to the TOF 2 having access to those dollars for the seizure by Vialidad, as they remain held in that process.
The case fits within the pattern of corruption that characterized the so-called "21st-century socialism" in Latin America. The Kirchners maintained close ties with Cuba and Venezuela, and the U.S. sanctioned Cristina Kirchner in March 2025 for corruption cases.
Other leaders of the regional bloc have also faced justice: Rafael Correa was sentenced to eight years in prison in Ecuador in 2020 for the Bribes case, and Lula da Silva received sentences in Brazil in the context of the Lava Jato, although the Brazilian Supreme Court annulled them in 2021 for procedural reasons.
The Argentine Supreme Court still needs to resolve whether any of the properties from the first block will be allocated for the operation of the Judiciary, a necessary step before the court can proceed with the final execution of the seizure.
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