Buenos Aires Herald 
Five days in, the government has broken its silence over recordings alleging that President Milei’s sister, Karina Milei, and other officials were taking bribes from companies in exchange for state contracts with Argentina’s disabilities agency.
The opposition is now looking to create an investigative commission and call on senior government officials to appear in Congress.
Karina’s right hand man Eduardo “Lule” Menem, who is accused in the recording, said on Sunday that the claims were false and called the leak “a brute Kirchnerist media operation.” His comments were the first time any of the officials named in the recordings had publicly addressed the allegations.
His cousin, lower house head Martín Menem, and chief of staff Guillermo Francos, also denied the allegations, calling them part of a political operation ahead of the legislative elections.
President Javier Milei has not addressed the issue in either of the speeches he has given since the allegations surfaced. Karina, too, has remained mute on the issue despite speaking at a La Libertad Avanza party rally on Saturday.
Neither the president nor his sister have commented directly on the matter yet. On Monday, both him and Karina attended the inauguration of the new building of the América Corporation.
While the president didn’t explicitly mention the scandal, he hinted at it by denying claims that the government currently lacks political maneuvering. “The people on the other side want to destroy everything, which is a very different thing,” he said in his speech.
“In an electoral year, this was absolutely foreseeable,” he said. “It’s like chess, the black pieces also play.”
The voice in the recordings in question are attributed to Diego Spagnuolo, who was fired as head of Argentina’s National Disabilities Agency (ANDIS, by its Spanish acronym) on Thursday. Spagnuolo, a friend of President Javier Milei who has also worked as his lawyer, has not publicly denied the authenticity of the recordings.
The judiciary has started an investigation and police have carried out 17 raids, mainly targeting Spagnuolo and drug company Suizo Argentina, which is accused of coordinating the bribes.
“I cannot speak or affirm anything about the authenticity of the audios that are going around, but I can assure the absolute falsity of their contents,” Lule Menem wrote in a statement on his X account. “I have never had any type of involvement in the ANDIS contracts. Neither formally nor informally.”
Menem added that he had “never spoken” about the ANDIS with Karina or the president and accused the opposition of seeking to smear the government two weeks before the Buenos Aires Province elections.
Lule Menem is the son of Fátima Menem, a cousin of ex-President Carlos Menem. Martín Menem — son of Carlos Menem’s brother, Eduardo — is head of the lower house.
The investigation
On Friday, the judiciary forbade Spagnuolo and three senior managers at Suizo Argentina from leaving the country, and police conducted 15 raids as part of the probe. Officers have seized the phones of Spagnuolo and another former ANDIS official.
The judiciary now has its eye on the Kovalivker family, which runs Suizo Argentina. Emmanuel Kovalivker, one of the company’s owners, was intercepted trying to leave his house in the Nordelta gated community with US$260,000 and AR$7,000,000 (US$5,230) in envelopes. The cash was seized along with his phone.
His brother Jonathan Kovalivker, who is Suizo Argentina’s chief executive officer, and the brothers’ father Eduardo Kovalivker, who is on the board of directors, have not been located by the authorities.
The judicial investigation began on Thursday after lawyer Gregorio Dalbón — known for representing ex-president Cristina Kirchner — filed a criminal complaint against President Milei, Karina Milei, Lule Menem, Spagnuolo and Eduardo Kovalivker. He accused them of being part of “a system of collection and payment of bribes related to the purchase and provision of medicine.”
*Updated on Monday, August 25, at 6.25 p.m.
