Moneta Family

Its members are Raúl Pedro Moneta and his sons, Raúl Cruz, Belisario, Faustino and Rufino. Moneta also has two daughters, but they are not involved in his companies. The family also includes Raúl Pedro’s wife: María Claudia Arroyo Benegas.

Son of a wealthy Italian family, Moneta began to work in the financial sector along with his father and his uncle, Raúl Adolfo Moneta and Benito Lucini. Their different financial enterprises helped him to be in contact with the political sector during Menem’s administrations (1989–1999) and to be among the government’s closest business partners. In Mendoza, where he had a lot of land due to his marriage with Arroyo Benegas, he was involved in the privatization of the provincial banks with the help of José Luis Manzano and Daniel Vila (Grupo América). He later partnered with the latter and two powerful businessmen from Mendoza. He continued to grow by purchasing farming and cattle breeding businesses, such as Estancia La República in Luján. He welcomed several renowned politicians and businessmen at the ranch.

Another partner was Citibank. He and his childhood friend Ricardo Handley founded Citicorp Equiity Investments.

His arrival in the media sector goes back to the late 1990s, when he was the President of Grupo Citicorp Equity Investments (CEI), with 33% of the company’s stock. Through that business trust (which included Telefónica Internacional [TISA], Liberty Media and American investment fund HMT&F), he came to control two open TV channels in Buenos Aires (Telefé and Canal 9), three radio stations (Continental, La Red and FM Hit), TV production company Torneos y Competencias, paid content TV company Cablevisión and 50% of telephone company Telefónica. At the turn of the millennium and under a new government, he lost his stock in CEI after being legally prosecuted for his actions through financial company Banco República. Accused of money laundering and fraud, Moneta fell out of favor in the late 1990s.

However, in 2003 he partnered with Daniel Hadad and became a shareholder of Canal 9 from Buenos Aires. He sold his stock in 2006. In 2010 he returned to the media industry by purchasing six radio stations to Mexican Grupo CIE. Since then, he continued to work in the radio industry, though he regularly sold his radio stations. As of 2019, he owns two radio stations (San Isidro Labrador and Metro), as well as some online portals and magazines (Bacanal, El Federal).

He has been recently accused of being involved in the purchase of money printing company Ciccione together with other bankers. Former Argentinian Vice President Amado Boudou is also involved in the case.

Since 2013, Moneta’s economic interests in the media, financial, energy and farming sectors have been managed by his sons, who were already members of the board of directors of several companies. He had to stop working due to health issues. The Director of the group is his eldest son, Raúl Cruz Moneta.