Milei government rocked by corruption scandal, calls for raids on journalists

Argentina’s judiciary ordered a halt to the publication of recordings that allegedly show the President's sister demanding bribes from drug companies

This article was originally published at the Buenos Aires Herald, where our own pirata, Amy Booth is executive editor.

The Argentine government has blamed the leak of audio recordings attributed to presidency secretary Karina Milei, President Javier Milei’s sister, on what it calls an “illegal intelligence operation influenced by foreign interests.” The judiciary granted the government’s request to order a halt on publication of more material, but did not respond to State requests to raid the homes and offices of the journalists who published it.

Presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni announced that the government had filed the criminal complaint and called the publication of the material an attempt to “destabilize the country in the middle of an electoral campaign.”

“This is not a leak. It was an illegal, planned and orchestrated attack,” he wrote on X.

Leaked audio messages attributed to Karina Milei, secretary general of the presidency and President Javier Milei’s sister, were published by streaming channel Carnaval on Friday. Journalist Mauro Federico said that the recordings lasted 50 minutes, but only aired a few, in which she did not say anything compromising.

The government accused the journalists of “blackmailing” public officials because they said they would release more damning audios as the elections approached.

Recordings released last week appear to show Karina Milei and her right-hand man, Eduardo “Lule” Menem, demanding kickback bribes from drug companies in exchange for multi-million-dollar contracts with the disability agency.

Public outrage over the corruption scandal led to protesters throwing rocks at a Presidential motorcade last week, forcing Milei to flee a campaign event.

The document also mentioned other journalists involved in the release of audios, such as Jorge Rial, and media outlet owners like Franco Bindi, who is accused of having been a spy and “an agent for foreign governments operating in Argentina.” Bindi is married to deputy Marcela Pagano, who recently left the La Libertad Avanza bloc over disputes with its members.

In their filing, the government asked the judiciary to search Carnaval’s offices, as well as the homes of Federico, Rial, Bindi and Carnaval’s owner, Pablo Toviggino. However, the judiciary had not ordered such a search at the time of writing.

Shortly after the complaint was filed, Judge Alejandro Maraniello ordered a halt to the publication of the recordings in both traditional and social media. The ruling only applies to those attributed to Karina Milei that were released on Friday.

Those recordings did not reveal anything particularly damning. However, they were released a week and a half after she was accused of corruption via another set of leaked audios. The government also expressed alarm because the alleged recordings of Karina Milei appeared to have been recorded inside the Casa Rosada presidential palace.

In Monday’s complaint, the government not only requested a stop to the spreading of Karina Milei’s audios, but also those of current or former public officials that have already been released or that could be released in the future. This includes audios attributed to ex-head of the national disability agency Diego Spagnuolo, although the ruling was not about those recordings specifically.

The government called the leak of these recordings a “brute non-institutional intelligence operation” orchestrated by the “Kirchnerist opposition” seeking to influence the results of Sunday’s legislative elections in Buenos Aires province and the October 26 national legislative election.

The accusations of bribery not only involve Karina Milei and Lule Menem, but also drug company Suizo Argentina, which is accused of coordinating the bribes. Suizo Argentina belongs to the Kovalivker family, whose members are now being investigated.

On Monday, judge Sebastián Casanello formally charged Ariel De Vicentis, chief of security in one of the Nordelta gated communities, for obstructing the police in their search for Jonathan Kovalivker, owner of Suizo Argentina. De Vicentis is accused of not letting police enter the gated community, ultimately allowing the businessman to escape, on August 22.

Kovalivker surrendered to the judiciary days later to hand over his phone — for which he did not provide a password — but he was not arrested.

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