Argentina grains-for-oil case takes dark turn

OREANDA-NEWS. A special prosecutor who was preparing to testify about an alleged grains-for-oil deal with Iran in exchange for impunity over the 1994 AMIA Jewish community center bombing in Buenos Aires was found dead in his home late last night.

His body was found hours before he was scheduled to testify in the congress about an accusation he presented in court last week claiming that President Cristina Fern?ndez de Kirchner and foreign minister H?ctor Timerman, among others, had negotiated impunity for a group of suspected Iranian nationals in exchange for increased trade with Tehran, including oil imports.

The AMIA attack killed 85 people.

Questions surrounding the prosecutor?s death further cloud the investment climate in shale-rich Argentina in the run-up to elections in October. Fernandez is not eligible to run for another term.

The political ramifications of the death are likely to augment concerns about Argentina's above-ground risk. In addition to soaring inflation and government intervention in the oil sector, investors are often reluctant to increase their exposure to Argentina because of persistent uncertainty over the political climate.

Under orders of the president, several officials had worked to "reestablish full trade relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran …. To relieve Argentina's serious energy crisis, through an ‘oil for grains' exchange," Nisman wrote in a summary of his 300-page complaints that was delivered in court last week. Argentina has been importing an increasing amount of crude oil amid soaring demand and flagging domestic production.

Nisman's accusations, which are largely based on wiretaps, include allegations that Argentina?s state-controlled YPF could send top officials to Tehran who would serve as the intermediaries in any trade deals.

The plot was never completed because Argentina was unable to get Interpol to cancel its international arrest warrants for the Iranian suspects, according to Nisman.

The government has characterized the claims as ludicrous and released an e-mail from former Interpol secretary general Ronald Noble, who denied Argentina had sought to cancel the warrants. Iran has repeatedly denied involvement in the bombing.

Nisman's body was found inside his locked apartment next to a firearm and a shell casing a little more than a month after Fernandez ordered a shake-up in the leadership of the country's intelligence agency.

The AMIA investigation has now been transferred to another prosecutor.

Argentina has been trying to court foreign investors to its emerging shale play, an effort that has been hamstrung by the recent plunge in oil prices and the country's partial debt default in July 2014.

Buenos Aires has yet to show any willingness to reopen negotiations with a group of hedge funds that pushed it into default by refusing to restructure defaulted debt.