President Javier Milei’s government has been plunged into crisis mode after leaked audio messages from a government official led to allegations of a corruption scheme involving figures at the top of the administration.
Reacting to the developing scandal, the Milei administration announced midweek that it had fired the man at the heart of the furore, Diego Spagnuolo, the head of the ANDIS (Agencia Nacional de Discapacidad) agency for the disabled, and placed the body under trusteeship.
The new trustee will be Dr. Alejandro Alberto Vilches, a specialist in the administration of health systems and Health Management Secretary until now, the government announced.
The sacking of Spagnuolo, who was once Milei’s personal lawyer, came after the audio clips attributed to him were leaked and published online.
In the recordings, which have not been verified, the voice in the recording apparently denounces a presumed network that sees kickbacks paid by pharmaceutical labs reach officials in return for the purchase of their medication. Among those named in the recordings are Presidential Chief-of-Staff Karina Milei – the President’s sister – and her main confidant, advisor Eduardo ‘Lule’ Menem.
Eye of the storm
The decision to fire Spagnuolo – and his second-in-command, the ANDIS National Director of Access to Health Services Daniel María Garbellini – came hours after the opposition in the Chamber of Deputies, with socialist Esteban Paulón and Peronist Leandro Santoro at the helm, presented requests for interpellation and questions of privilege against him for the content of the audio recordings, published by various media outlets.
The Milei government, in announcing the decision, took a swipe at the opposition.
“Given the events of common knowledge and their evident political use by the opposition in an election year, the President of the Nation has decided preventively to remove from his post the Executive Director of the Agencia Nacional de Discapacidad, Diego Spagnuolo,” stated the government.
"ANDIS has just been placed under trusteeship. The trustee will be Dr. Alejandro Alberto Vilches, a specialist in the administration of health systems in both the public and private sectors and currently Health Management Secretary," responded Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni in a post on social media.
Without mentioning the leaked audio recordings describing fraudulent manoeuvres, Adorni concluded: "His first mission will be a thoroughgoing audit in the area. Invalid pensions have historically been a political slush fund which this government is determined to break up to guarantee the rights of those who really need them. Within that framework the audits will dig deep and restore validity to the pensions."
The dismissal came just one day after ANDIS was in the eye of a Congress storm. On Wednesday, deputies in the lower house voted by a 172-73 margin to override Milei’s presidential veto of a bill declaring a state of emergency for assistance to the disabled, arriving at the requisite two-thirds majority.
Allegations
The audios feature what appears to be Spagnuolo saying that Karina Milei instructed her right-hand man, Eduardo ‘Lule’ Menem, to receive cash bribes via the Suizo Argentina pharmaceuticals chain, whose owner is Eduardo Kovalivker.
“I spoke to the President and said to him: ‘They’re on the take, you can act the fool but don’t dump this load on me. It’s going to be messy and they won’t look after me but I have all the WhatsApps of Karina,” says the voice in the recording.
Subsequent journalistic investigations in local media outlets have alleged that there was an operation to collect kickbacks between Droguería Suizo Argentina, the property of the Kovalivker family, and government officials.
“Karina is owed three or four [percent]. I calculate three because they will surely tell her that out of the five, one percent is for the operation, another one percent for me and the remaining three percent for Karina. It’s surely like that and they’re making an Olympic grab,” the voice in the audio says. “They’re going to ask for cash from the providers.”
“They’re embezzling the agency … behind my back. I have nothing to do with it,” it continues.
The voice, assumed to be Spagnuolo, then says that he warned the President himself: “I went and told him: ‘Javier, I’m denouncing all this filching and below me I have people who are going to ask for cash. What do I do?’”
According to what is heard in the audios, the mechanism worked via the Suizo Argentina pharmaceuticals chain, which defined prices and conditions in contracts with the state.
“The Suizo called up the providers and told them: ‘Listen to me, it’s not five (percent) any more, you’re going to have to cough up eight. Bring it to the Suizo and we’ll take it up to the Presidency,’” says the voice.
The scheme allegedly covered medicine, hospitalisation and the transportation of patients.
“It’s a kiosk of a monthly US$20,000 to US$30,000,” says the voice attributed to the ex-government official.
According to reporting by Perfil, federal prosecutor Franco Picardi has opened up a case to determine the authenticity of the tapes and the possible role of Spagnuolo and the other officials mentioned.
The investigation has fallen into the hands of federal judge Sebastián Casanello, who must analyse the audios and establish if there are crimes linked to bribery and defrauding the state.
Lawyer Gregorio Dalbón has also denounced the President, Karina Milei, her advisor Eduardo ‘Lule’ Menem, Spagnuolo and Eduardo Kovalivker for having “participated in a scheme for the collection and payment of bribes related to the purchase and supply of medicaments.”
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL
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