Buenos Aires city police have conducted 15 raids in a corruption probe after a recording emerged of the head of Argentina’s disability agency accusing President Milei’s sister, Karina Milei, of charging bribes in exchange for state contracts with the agency.

On Friday, police raided the National Disability Agency, the headquarters of pharmaceutical company Suizo Argentina, the homes of the company’s senior management, and the home of former disability agency head Diego Spagnuolo, who was fired on Thursday after the audios became public.

The scandal is a political embarrassment for the Milei government. The president is engaged in a tussle with Argentina’s Congress over disability funding, as lawmakers seek to overturn his block on a law increasing funding — a move the president has said the country can’t afford.

A court forbade Spagnuolo and three members of Suizo Argentina from leaving the country.

Suizo Argentina shareholder Emmanuel Kovalivker was intercepted trying to leave his house in the Nordelta gated community. He had envelopes containing more than US$260,000 and AR$7,000,000 (US$5,230) in cash.

Spagnuolo was located on Friday in a separate gated community near Pilar, Buenos Aires Province. The investigators seized two cell phones, a bill counting machine, and cash.

So far, no arrests have been ordered.

In the recording, Spagnuolo claims that senior officials have been collecting bribes from pharmaceutical companies.

At one point, Spagnuolo claims to have evidence incriminating Karina Milei on one of the devices. “If there’s any ruckus and they don’t protect me, I have all Karina’s WhatsApps,” he can be heard saying.

The voice on the audio accused Suizo Argentina of coordinating the collection of bribes from other companies. The bribes ranged between 5 and 8% of the secured contracts, Spagnuolo could be heard saying. Out of that total, Karina Milei allegedly receives 3%, which translates to “between half a million and 800,000 [dollars],” the audio said.

Aside from Karina Milei, Spagnuolo implicated two of her right-hand men in the scheme — the Undersecretary of Institutional Management, Eduardo “Lule” Menem, and the speaker of the lower house, Martín Menem.

None of the public officials implicated in the scandal have commented on the issue. On Thursday, the Presidential Spokesperson’s Office referred to the scandal only as “the facts that are public knowledge” and accused the opposition of exploiting it for electoral gain.

The Herald reached out to Spagnuolo on Thursday and Eduardo “Lule” Menem and Martín Menem’s press offices on Friday, but received no immediate response.

According to Ivy Cángaro, one of the journalists who first published the leaked audios, the Menems “were benefiting some friends and to that end they pressured certain officials, in this case Spagnuolo, to directly contract, for example, Suizo Argentina.”

“The National Disability Agency is one of many bodies that function for this government as a revenue collector for its own coffers,” she told the Herald.

A source involved in ruling party La Libertad Avanza (LLA)’s legislative election campaign told the Herald that the scandal could harm Milei’s electoral possibilities for October and criticized the official silence.

“This will hit us hard, and the longer they take to make an official statement, the worse it gets,” he said.