Argentina's vice president, Amado Boudou, has been charged with conducting business incompatible with public office and bribery, The Associated Press reported.

Boudou allegedly used shell companies and middlemen to take over a company that was given contracts to print the Argentine peso, as well as literature for President Cristina Fernandez's election campaign, according to AP.

Ariel Lijo, the federal judge presiding over the case, published his decision Friday night and ordered an embargo on 200,000 pesos -- $25,000 -- of Boudou's property, AP reported. The vice president will remain free until he stands trial, and he maintains his innocence. If convicted, Boudou could face between one and six years in prison and a lifetime ban from political office.

According to the judge's investigation, Boudou allegedly used a frontman to buy the Ciccone Calcografica printing company when it filed for bankruptcy in 2010, the BBC reported. Boudou was economy minister at the time. Ciccone Calcografica has been under investigation for more than three years.

After Boudou came to control the company through a shell company, it allegedly got tax breaks to pay its debts, according to the BBC.

That shell company, The Old Fund, was led by businessman Alejandro Vandenbroele, who is suspected of secretly representing Boudou in business deals, AP reported. The scandal tore open after Vandenbroele's ex-wife shed light on the deal, supposedly because her life was being threatened because of what she knew, according to AP.

Boudou's lawyer, Diego Pirota, told Radio America the vice president plans to appeal the decision to indict him July 4, Bloomberg reported. Opposition politicians, including Radical Party presidential candidate Julio Cobos and Senator Gabriela Michetti, are calling for impeachment hearings to investigate the corruption claims, Bloomberg said.

Boudou became Argentina's vice president in December 2011 after being economy minister from 2009 to 2011.