Argentina's Karinagate: 19 indicted on racketeering charges
The former head of the now-defunct National Disability Agency (ANDIS), Diego Spagnuolo, was prosecuted on Monday along with 18 other people — including former government officials and representatives of pharmaceutical companies — in a probe investigating a bribery scheme that operated within that state sector.
Spagnuolo has been prosecuted for illicit association, fraud against the public administration, bribery, carrying out negotiations that were incompatible with his role as a public official, and infringement of the law regulating the ethics of public service.
Spagnuolo was the most prominent figure among the 19 indicted Milei officials and pharmacy chain executives - alleged partners in what Federal Judge Sebastián Casanello called "a criminal structure that operated within the agency as a means of enrichment and to the clear detriment of the agency's public mandate: the protection and care of the disabled."
Prosecutors found nearly US$30 million in "reduced bidding" ANDIS contracts between July 2024 and August 2025.
The scandal broke in August 2025 with the leak of several audios attributed to Spagnuolo, in which Presidency Secretary Karina Milei — President Javier Milei’s sister — and her right-hand man, Eduardo "Lule" Menem, were accused of running the bribery scheme.
The system consisted of taking bribes from pharma and medical companies in exchange for state contracts. The voice in the audios said that Karina Milei took 3% of each contact as bribes.
The audios were not included as evidence in the case, and Karina Milei and Lule Menem were not prosecuted.
At: translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&hl=en&u=https://www.politicargentina.com/notas/202602/71659-escandalo-en-andis-procesaron-a-diego-spagnuolo-y-a-otras-18-personas-por-corrupcion.html&client=webapp
Disgraced National Disability Agency (ANDIS) director Diego Spagnuolo poses between Argentine President Javier Milei, and his sister and chief of staff, Karina Milei, in a 2023 campaign photo.
Spagnuolo - who shares a lawyer with Milei and Argentina' top convicted drug trafficker, Fred Machado - was one of 19 people indicted today in the ANDIS bribery scandal.
Critics noted, however, that none in the Kovalivker family - who control the Suizo Argentina pharmacy chain - or Milei's Chief of Staff Karina Milei - whose "3% share" in the bribery scheme was detailed by Spagnuolo in recordings - were included in the indictment.
Milei responded to the scandal by shuttering ANDIS.
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