Argentina’s president Javier Milei is facing his administration’s worst alleged corruption scandal – involving none other than his hugely influential sister, Karina – less than two months before key legislative elections.
For more than a week, news in the country has been dominated by audio recordings in which a former government official is heard discussing the alleged payment of bribes linked to the purchase of medicines for people with disabilities.
In the recordings, Diego Spagnuolo, the head of the National Disability Agency and a former Milei lawyer, claimed that the sister of the self-styled anarcho-capitalist allegedly pocketed 3% from each contract.
Spagnuolo initially denied it was him in the tapes, but later admitted it and was dismissed by the government after the furore.
After days of silence, Milei appeared alongside his sister – an influential figure in his administration – at a campaign rally, asking the crowd to give her a “big ovation”.
After a summer in which the wild-haired president was celebrated even by the British right, political analysts in Argentina see the case as the most damaging blow yet to Milei.
“It’s the biggest scandal his administration has faced,” said Juan Courel, an expert in political communication from Alaska Comunicación.
The scandal first emerged on 19 August, when the streaming channel Carnaval released the first audio recordings, the source of which is still unknown.
In the recordings, Spagnuolo claimed the alleged scheme was channelled through the pharmaceutical firm Suizo Argentina, which allegedly demanded 8% kickbacks from other companies seeking government contracts.
The scheme reportedly generated between $500,000 and $800,000 per month in bribes, with 3% of that amount allegedly going to Milei’s sister, Karina, who is the secretary general of the presidency – a role she was able to assume because Milei scrapped a decree barring relatives from public office.
Spagnuolo also said he had warned the president about the supposed fraudulent dealings: “I said to him: ‘Javier, you know they are stealing, that your sister is stealing’.”
As the scandal spread, lawyer Gregorio Dalbón filed a criminal complaint against Milei, Karina, Spagnuolo and others named in the recordings. Dalbón has represented former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner – Milei’s main political adversary who was herself banned from politics for life and put under house arrest in June after the supreme court upheld a six-year sentence for corruption.
Dalbón described the allegations against Milei’s government as “the greatest corruption scandal since democracy was restored in 1983”, adding: “I don’t rule out that this could be this government’s Watergate.”
A federal judge ordered an investigation and police raids at dozens of addresses. At the home of one of Suizo Argentina’s owners, $266,000 in cash was seized.
During a campaign event last Saturday, Karina did not mention the case directly, but said: “We are ready to fight, to keep watch so they [the opposition] don’t steal from us any more.”
The president also avoided addressing the case directly, but reposted on his social media a statement from Suizo Argentina, in which the company said it was “fully available” to the courts to “clarify the facts under investigation, fully convinced it had acted in complete compliance with current rules and laws”.
Opposition lawmakers filed a motion to establish an investigative commission to probe the corruption allegations. “So far, there have been no convincing explanations about what happened,” said Esteban Paulón, the socialist deputy who introduced the bill. “And that is serious because it undermines the government’s credibility.”
On 26 October, Milei will face his first midterm election, with half the seats in the lower house and a third of the senate up for grabs.
According to Lara Goyburu, a political scientist and executive director at the consulting firm Management & Fit, the scandal could affect voter turnout and poses a greater risk to Milei than the cryptocurrency debacle.
In February, the president promoted an obscure token called $LIBRA, which soared in value after his endorsement before collapsing, prompting dozens of criminal complaints alleging fraud.
Goyburu said the “audio scandal” resonates more with the public because it occurred “in an organisation that works with a vulnerable sector of the population” and because it appears closer to the “old-fashioned corruption” Milei had promised to fight.
