Fernando de Santibañes is an Argentine

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 politician and banker. He was the Secretary of Intelligence

Secretaría de Inteligencia

Secretaría de Inteligencia is the premier intelligence agency of the Argentine Republic and head of its National Intelligence System....

 of the Argentine Republic from 1999 to October 23, 2000, during half of Fernando de la Rúa

Fernando de la Rúa

Fernando de la Rúa is an Argentine politician. He was president of the country from December 10, 1999 to December 21, 2001 for the Alliance for Work, Justice and Education ....

's presidency. De Santibañes resigned the position in 2000 after the media discovered the Secretariat's involvement in the Sentate Bribes scandals. He is currently facing judicial charges.

De Santibañes studied at the Universidad del Salvador

Universidad del Salvador

The Universidad del Salvador is a Jesuit university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In addition to its main Campus, it has instructional and research facilities in Pilar, Buenos Aires; San Miguel, Buenos Aires; Santa Cruz, Misiones; and Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires...

 and the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

. He was a banker at the Banco Financiero from 1984 and headed the company from 1993 until it was sold to the Banco Francés in 1995. It is alleged that de Santibañes made a fortune during the 1989 currency devaluation. He also led the Banco de Crédito before his close friend de la Rúa appointed him to government.

Administration and resignation

During de Santibañes' administration of SIDE, 1,200 personnel were fired, drastically reducing SIDE's professional capability. The Secretary was also blamed for the Bribes in the Argentine Senate

Argentine Senate

The Argentine Senate is the upper house of the Argentine National Congress. It has 72 senators: three for each province and three for the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires...

 scandal, in which SIDE provided money that later were used to bribe senators to support government legislation.

De Santibañes was one of the most unpopular secretaries in SIDE's history, as well as the most scandal-ridden.
Internally, de Santibañes was mocked as "Chanel Nº 5", "The millionaire detective", "Superagent 86", "Seañ Tibañes 007 (with license to kill): Diamonds are forever", etc.

In 2000, an employee of the Directorate of Finances committed suicide at the 25 de Mayo Avenue offices, by jumping from a 7th floor window overlooking an internal patio. Later that year, another employee attempted suicide by cutting her veins in one of the building's restrooms; luckily, an emergency medical intervention saved her life. These mysteries were never solved, and are one of the most remembered events during de Santibañes' administration.

On October 23, 2000 de Santibañes resigned as chief of Argentina's State Intelligence Secretariat (SIDE). His resignation came a day after he staged a series of television interviews in which he criticized the ruling political coalition, the "Alliance," saying it should dissolve because its internal crisis was hampering economic growth. His resignation had been demanded by members of FrePaSo, the government's junior coalition partner, and de la Rúa's reluctance to sack de Santibañes led to his vice-president, Carlos Álvarez

Carlos Álvarez (vice-president)

Carlos Alberto "Chacho" Álvarez is an Argentine politician; he was Vice-President of Argentina during part of President Fernando de la Rúa's mandate, and currently heads the Aladi Secretariat....

's resignation.

Since resigning from government, de Santibañes has dedicated himself to breeding horses at his lagr estate in Pilar, Buenos Aires

Pilar, Buenos Aires

Pilar is a city in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It has a population of more than 226,000 inhabitants as per the . Pilar is part of the Greater Buenos Aires urban conurbation and is the head of the administrative division of Pilar Partido...

.

External links

• Spy chief denies his agency paid bribes in Argentina, CNN
  CNN
  Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
  
  , October 2000
• Santibañes, replaced by Becerra as Secretary of Intelligence, La Nación
  La Nación
  La Nación is an Argentine daily newspaper. The country's leading conservative paper, the centrist Clarín is its main competitor. It is the only newspaper in Argentina still published in broadsheet format.-Overview:...
  
  , October 23, 2000