Through resolution 6/2024, the new Enargas auditor, Carlos Casares, initiated an internal investigation after finding two high-power servers installed in the organization's systems room. The hypothesis with which the researchers are working is that the supercomputers mined cryptocurrencies with energy from the building located in the heart of Buenos Aires. What is confirmed is that the equipment responded to "interests other than those of the regulatory body." After the discovery, the Information and Communication Technology manager, who had joined the organization in 2020, resigned.
The new Enargas auditor, Carlos Casares , ordered an internal investigation after finding two computer servers illegally installed in the systems room of the organization's headquarters, located on Suipacha Street in downtown Buenos Aires. The computers were not declared in the inventory of the regulatory entity nor did they provide any type of service associated with the control of gas activity.
Upon verifying the irregular existence of the equipment in a restricted access room of the building, Casares ordered summary action to determine who installed and for what purpose the two computer units that are currently in custody. Although a priori it appears surreal or absurd, the researchers' suspicion is that the servers—which were set up under the management of Ramiro Pigliapoco , who until the end of December was head of the Communication and Information Technology area of ??Enargas— were mining cryptocurrencies. . The hypothesis is that they are high-powered servers, similar to those used to produce virtual currencies in decentralized encryption systems, according to private sources familiar with the events told EconoJournal .
“This intervention took note of the existence in the area of ??the Information and Communication Technologies Management of the presence of two uninventoryed equipment, which prima facie are not related to the functions of the organization and which would have been used for interests other than the competence of Enargas,” explains Casares in the recitals of resolution 6/2024 dated January 6 and accessed by this media.
After the discovery of the irregular servers and one day before the creation of an investigative commission is made official, which is headed by Claudio De la Fuente , a long-standing director of Enargas who directs the Human Resources area, and Silvana Onorati , coordinator of the organization's Legal Affairs, Pigliapoco presented his resignation , which prevented him from being investigated in depth to find out how two high-tech servers came to be installed within the gas industry's control body. The former Technology manager was one of the few who was authorized to enter the room, whose access requires fingerprint validation at the entrance door.
De la Fuente and Onorati must now determine the traceability of the equipment , know who acquired it (they are not property of the regulatory entity) and who operated the network to which they were connected via Wi-Fi. If the progress of the investigation yields conclusive evidence, the new Enargas authorities will take the request to Justice . But it is still early to draw conclusions. First it will be necessary to confirm that the servers have been mining cryptocurrencies, for which computer experts will have to audit them in detail and additional information must also be collected, such as the energy consumption of the building, which according to those close to the previous management, would not have changed. too much since Pigliapoco installed the computers, apparently in 2021.
EconoJournal tried to contact Pigliapoco by phone, but did not receive a response. From Enargas, meanwhile, they excused themselves from commenting.
Investigation
What is known is that Pigliapoco entered Enargas during the intervention by Federico Bernal , who arrived at the entity in March 2020 with the support of former vice president Cristina Kirchner (beyond the fact that at the end of 2021 he lost the trust of Maximo Kirchner and the leadership of La Campora). The person who recommended it was the lawyer Maria Tereza Pittorino Diaz , current secretary of the Board of Directors of the regulatory entity and daughter of Daniel Diaz , a former director of Odebrecht with proven capillarity with representatives of the gas industry from across the political spectrumPigliapoco is Pittorino Diaz's brother-in-law and Diaz's son-in-law , given that he is married to another of the daughters of the former executive of the Brazilian construction company, who between 2020 and 2022 was Bernal's advisor at Enargas. Diaz died in the middle of last year.
Until now, the private sources consulted by this means assured that there is still no empirical element that directly links Pigliapoco's actions with his superiors within EnargasNeither with Bernal, who until December 10 served as Undersecretary of Hydrocarbons (he left the regulatory body in October 2021), nor with Osvaldo Pitrau , who succeeded him as auditor.
The Enargas Information Security department had already been in the center of the scene last September for a leak of a database of the organization that was sold on the dark Internet . Dissatisfied with the technical explanations he received from Pigliapoco, Pitrau had hired an external audit in charge of the Cybersecurity area of ??the Scalabrini Ortiz University (ONSO), which reports to Pablo Lazaro , who was undersecretary of that unit during the management of Patricia Bullrich in the Cambiemos government. The results of that investigation will be known in the coming weeks.
Pitrau left Enargas at the end of December, replaced by Casares. One of his last measures was to dissolve the management of Technological Innovation , which was headed by Carina Buccieri , daughter of Carlos Buccieri, another historical member of Gas del Estado and in turn goddaughter of Daniel Diaz. The Innovation area was one of the areas that grew the most during Bernal's management, which exponentially increased the regulatory body's staff, which today exceeds 650 people , 30% more than the historical average. Casares, who on Monday chaired the public gas hearing in order to increase residential gas rates, aims to regularize this situation throughout 2024.
