Nisman embezzled funds, claims Argentinian cabinet chief

Aníbal Fernandez calls late prosecutor ‘a scoundrel,’ says he stole public money intended for investigation of 1994 Jewish center bombing

BUENOS AIRES — Argentinian Cabinet Chief Aníbal Fernandez called the late AMIA special prosecutor Alberto Nisman a “scoundrel” and a “wretch.”

Nisman “embezzled public funds” using money meant to fund the AMIA special unit in order “to go out with women” and “to pay workers who did not work,” Fernandez told journalists Wednesday before entering the Government House.

Fernandez on Thursday clarified through the state news agency Telam that in his statements the previous day he was not referring to the late Alberto Nisman’s private life, but talking about his actions that have “penal significance,” such as the misuse of public funds or withholding half the salary of an employee.

Diego Lagomarsino, who has been charged in Nisman’s death for lending Nisman the handgun that was used to kill him, has through an attorney accused the prosecutor of withholding half of his wages.

On Wednesday, Argentine philosopher and writer Santiago Kovadloff responded to the Cabinet chief. “When you attack a dead man and discredit him in the way he did, it’s because that dead man is alive. If he’s alive, it’s because he’s has a great deal of significance. Because he has a great deal of significance, you have to discredit him,” Kovadloff said at the first of planned monthly rallies to remember Nisman, attended by about 200 people.

Nisman, who was Jewish, was found dead on January 18, hours before he was to present evidence to Argentine lawmakers that President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner covered up Iran’s role in the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires.