Argentine financier Fred Machado convicted of money laundering and fraud in Texas

Argentine businessman Federico “Fred” Machado, who financed economist José Luis Espert’s 2019 presidential campaign, was formally found guilty of conspiracy to commit money laundering and electronic fraud by a U.S. federal judge in the Eastern District of Texas. The plea was entered before Judge Amos L. Mazzant, who accepted the guilty finding but postponed the acceptance of the plea agreement pending a pre‑sentencing report, leaving the exact sentence undetermined.

Machado had been extradited from Viedma, Argentina, to Houston, Texas, and admitted responsibility for a scheme involving aircraft‑sale fraud through companies such as South Aviation Inc. and Pampa Aircraft Financing. The conviction may affect the parallel investigation by Argentine federal prosecutors into the financing of Espert’s campaign and the former libertarian deputy’s alleged wrongdoing.