In 1992, YPF was privatised and guess who voted for that? Yes, Cristina Kirchner and many of her acolytes, in support of President Menem's policies.
Then in 2012, CFK, as president, nationalised the company and the purchase was led by none other than Axel Kicillof who said at the time:
"The morons are those who think that the state has to be stupid and buy everything according to the YPF statute",
In other words, the state, in buying 51% control, paid less than the actual stock price. They stole it, in fact.
On that day, a Spanish friend of mine, sailing a yacht from the Canary Islands arrived in Puerto Madero and he told me that the Coast Guard ordered him to lower/remove the Spanish flag from the stern, a move which is illegal. This was because the Spanish company Repsol owned the remaining shares of YPF and physically removed from their offices in Buenos Aires on that day. Persona non grata if you will.
Now more than ten years later the case has been heard by a judge in New York with the Argentine government facing a compensation claim of around US$10billion.
YPF is currently valued at around US$11billion.
Sometimes these things just come back to bite you in the ass, don't they?
