While Javier Milei was piecing together his government team, he asked for only one appointment: he wanted his friend and former lawyer Diego Spagnuolo in a prominent position. At the end of 2023, he placed him in charge at the ANDIS national disability agency. Now, the President’s most trusted aide is at the centre of a scandal that has left the La Libertad Avanza government exposed.
“I spoke with the President and told him: ‘They’re stealing, you can play dumb, but don’t dump this burden on me. If trouble breaks out and I’m not protected, I’ve got all Karina’s WhatsApp” messages.
This is just one of several lines from a series of leaked audio clips, released by the Carnaval streaming channel, in which the alleged voice of Diego Spagnuolo can be heard. In them, the former ANDIS chief describes what appears to be an illegal bribery scheme linked to the buying and selling of medicines.
In the recordings, the voice attributed to Spagnuolo implies that pharmaceutical laboratories are required to make financial contributions to secure contracts with the state. It also names those allegedly at the top of the collection chain: Presidential Chief-of-Staff Karina Milei and Institutional Management Undersecretary Eduardo ‘Lule’ Menem, acting in coordination with distributor Suizo Argentina, which – according to the audios – was tasked with soliciting money from suppliers and “delivering it to the Presidency.”
Milei’s former lawyer has made headlines before, rarely for positive reasons. Most recently, he was accused by Marlene Spesso, the mother of a 12-year-old boy with autism, of mistreating them during a meeting. The clash escalated into a national debate in which the President himself intervened, later attacking the child and branding the incident a “Kirchnerite operation.”
Once again, Spagnuolo found himself at the eye of the storm and another apparent operation, according to the government.
Javier Milei first met Diego Spagnuolo, as many others did, through social media. The lawyer was an active user on X, initially under a pseudonym, who shared a similarly aggressive tone. Spagnuolo offered Milei time and attention, something he had previously lacked in his life. By the time La Libertad Avanza was founded in early 2021, Milei had persuaded Spagnuolo to join the project. Perhaps more out of necessity than conviction: at that time, when the political establishment and most of the press dismissed the libertarians as little more than a joke, they struggled to fill their candidate lists. Spagnolo ended up in 11th place on the ballot for deputies, a more symbolic placing more in aspiration than anything else.
Yet the context in which Milei deepened his ties with Spagnuolo can, with hindsight, be seen as a warning of what was to come. In November 2021, just days before taking office as a national deputy, Milei filed a civil lawsuit against journalists Fabián Doman, Martín Candalaft, Paulo Vilouta and Débora Plager, seeking one million pesos from each. Their offence had been drawing a parallel between Nazism and Milei’s rhetoric. A gesture from Spagnolo captivated Milei: he offered to handle the case ad honorem, charging only legal expenses. That “heroic” move particularly won over Karina Milei, who has always been reluctant to spend a single extra peso more than is necessary.
Spagnuolo defended Milei in that case (the President would later sue other journalists Carlos Pagni, Ari Lijalad and Viviana Canosa) and in several others. One was the first pyramid scheme Milei promoted, the Coin X platform, in 2022, another sign that history does sometimes repeat itself.
The bond, in fact, grew so close that once Milei won Argentina’s Presidency, he sought a post for his friend. And the word “sought” is key: Spagnuolo’s only previous experience in the health sector came from a brief stint at the Pilar municipal government. Beyond that, the lawyer holds no qualifications or credentials that explain his current post. Except, perhaps, that – as the political caste always has and did – being a friend of the leader brings benefits and privileges.
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