The Government of the Province of Santa Fe announced on Wednesday the fourth auction of assets seized from crime, a process that will take place on 18 September through the Provincial Agency for the Registration, Administration and Destination of Assets and Patrimonial Rights (Aprad). Registration for the process is now open and interested parties may register until 9 September at http://www.santafe.gob.ar/subasta.
The auction will take place at the Belgrano Station in the city of Santa Fe and will be the largest auction ever held by Aprad: a total of 159 lots will be auctioned, comprising more than 120 vehicles, four properties, three lots of jewellery, four mobile phones, a boat engine, construction materials and, for the first time, household appliances.
During a press conference at the Government House, the Secretary of Provincial Registry Management, Matías Figueroa Escauriza, explained that this policy "seeks to weaken the economic power of the different criminal organisations", and reminded that "registration for the auction is compulsory, because we cross-check data to detect whether people have any links with criminal organisations". In this sense, he added that "in previous auctions we detected several people that we have not allowed to participate".
In this regard, the official remarked that "from the government we try to provide the greatest security for citizens to participate. We are the only province in Argentina that has this mechanism that takes goods from criminals and auctions them off, but we are aware that behind every auctioned good, there is a criminal from whom we take it, so there has to be a lot of security for those who participate in these auctions". As proof of this, he recalled that "auctioned vehicles have their licence plates changed, and in terms of registration they are born as a 0km vehicle, just like real estate, which has a new registration number: of all the goods we have already auctioned, we have never had any problems".
Record collection
The undersecretary of Aprad, Hernán Matich, then mentioned that "in the three previous auctions, a total of 2,326 million pesos was collected. 326 million pesos, and this auction is the largest we are going to have, with 159 lots: in the other three auctions there were 179 lots, so we are very close to adding the lots from the previous three auctions into one"; and he recalled that the money raised "is used to finance the operation of Aprad, it is destined to organisations for the common good, donations are made, and it is also used to repair victims of crime".
Meanwhile, Aprad's provincial director, Martín Domene, detailed that of the 159 lots, 62 are vehicles: there are cars, three pick-up trucks, 56 motorbikes and a quad bike; three lots of jewellery; a lot of construction materials in which seven pallets of porcelain tiles will be sold; household appliances such as stoves, ovens, washing machines; 24 boxed mobile phones; and four properties: "There are three lots of land in Roldán and a lot of land with a house built in Funes, in a very good location," he said.
Domene said that "this diversity of lots accumulates 480 million pesos if you add up the bases on which they are going to start bidding," he concluded.
Registration
Registration to participate in the auction is mandatory and interested parties have time to do so until 9 September through the website www.santafe.gob.ar/subasta. After cross-checking the information of all registered bidders, those who are admitted to participate in the process can view the lots the day before the auction, on 17 September from 10am to 6pm at Belgrano Station, and on the day of the auction from 8.30am to 2.30pm. The auction will start at 16:00.
