An admission by Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni that he omitted US$500,000 from his public asset and wealth declarations sparked controversy and criticism on Thursday from opposition figures, as well as his own allies in Argentina’s government.
Adorni, a key official in President Javier Milei’s administration, has been under intense scrutiny for more than three months after revelations concerning property purchases and expensive trips made after entering public office leaked into the media.
The claims are now currently under judicial investigation.
On Wednesday, Adorni submitted a new sworn statement to the authorities. In it, he included a whopping US$500,000 that he said he had saved “off the books” and had not previously declared.
“Of course I made a mistake. I will pay every tax I am required to pay, every fine, all the interest, everything arising from this error,” the Cabinet chief said in a primetime television interview later that day.
Within the ruling coalition, Senator Patricia Bullrich – a former minister in Milei’s Cabinet and key government ally – reacted by saying that “this is more than a mistake; it is an ethical omission – and our government has made morality a matter of state policy.”
Opposition deputy Maximiliano Ferraro, of the centrist Coalición Cívica, described Adorni’s statement as “a collection of inconsistencies and lies.”
Adorni, 46, has been one of the most prominent figures in Milei’s government. He moved from his original role as presidential spokesman to Cabinet Chief last November.
Until now, he has enjoyed Milei’s unwavering support, with the President repeatedly insisting that his official “has everything in order” and will not be sacked.
According to the official’s account of events, all of the money he has now declared came from his private-sector activities and cryptocurrency investments between 2014 and 2018, before he became presidential spokesman in December 2023.
However, videos of past statements and interviews that appear to contradict his version of events began circulating online on Thursday.
Regardless of the origin of the funds, Adorni acknowledged that he and his wife had decided not to declare the income “because the way to escape the old political system was to keep savings off the books”.”
The acknowledgement of these funds marks a reversal in the Cabinet Chief’s position – in April, he told Congress that “there was never any concealment whatsoever” of his assets.
For political consultant and analyst Facundo Cruz, the situation “creates a problem within the government”, because it forces the Cabinet to defend a minister who “is not in a comfortable position” and undermines one of the ruling coalition’s key rhetorical pillars: criticism of what it has disparagingly referred to as the political “caste.”
“It is a boomerang for the government,” Cruz said in an interview, explaining that because every time Adorni tries to explain what happened with his assets, he “further muddies a situation that was already lacking transparency.”
The controversy began in March when the media focused on an official trip to New York during which he took his wife, as well as private-jet holidays taken with his family.
Other leaks triggered a judicial investigation into the purchase over the past two years of undeclared property assets.
The official has not yet been called to testify as part of that investigation.
For political analyst Gustavo Marangoni, the case “damages the government’s reputation” on an issue “central to its election campaign,” although that damage will not necessarily translate into electoral consequences in the 2027 presidential election.
For that to happen, Marangoni said, the issue would need to “ignite” in combination with something else, such as the economy. For now, he argues, it is “an objective weakness, but not necessarily an irreversible one.”
