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Argentine Vice President Cristina Kirchner found guilty of corruption

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Updated December 6, 2022 at 6:32 p.m. EST|Published December 6, 2022 at 4:28 p.m. EST
Argentina Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner waves as she leaves her home in Buenos Aires for the Comodoro Py courthouse on Dec. 6. (Enrique Garcia Medina/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
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BUENOS AIRES — Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, a prominent and polarizing figure in Latin America who served two terms as president of Argentina, was convicted Tuesday on corruption charges, sentenced to six years in prison and given a lifetime ban from holding public office.

A panel of three judges found the 69-year-old Peronista, perhaps the nation’s most influential politician of the past two decades, guilty of fraud during her tenure as president for directing millions of dollars in taxpayer money to a family friend. She was acquitted of charges that she headed an illicit organization that engineered bribes and overpricing tied to roadwork projects in Patagonia.