Libertarian candidate José Luis Espert admitted Thursday to receiving a wire transfer from suspected drug trafficker Fred Machado, but claimed it was a payment for services he provided to a mining company connected to him. 

Espert, who is President Javier Milei’s main Buenos Aires province candidate for the national midterm elections, posted a video on social media in which he admitted to information from a US judicial case showing he received US$200,000 from a company affiliated with Machado. The Argentine businessman is currently under house arrest and awaiting extradition, accused by the US Justice Department of drug trafficking and money laundering in Texas.

The video was released just hours after the public release of Bank of America records confirming the transfer of money to Espert from a corporate network linked to Machado. The documents are evidence in the 2023 Texas case in which Machado’s partner Debra Mercer-Erwin was already convicted. Machado is currently detained in Río Negro, awaiting Argentina’s Supreme Court ruling on a US extradition request.

After local media revealed the bank documents, reports circulated throughout the day suggesting Espert would withdraw his Buenos Aires province candidacy for the midterms. In the video, he said he would stay in the race.

Also on Thursday, local outlets reported that Espert used aircraft tied to Machado’s companies at least 35 times during his 2019 presidential campaign, citing an ongoing judicial investigation that began in 2021 under federal Judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi.

Espert argued that the bank transfer was legal and transparent, calling it a “private affair.” He emphasized that “it was not a payment from Mr. Machado but from a company that requested my professional services,” while also acknowledging that the firm is “linked” to Machado. He did not name the company, which is part of Machado’s broader corporate structure.

“At the beginning of 2019, Fred Machado asked me to present my book, The Accomplice Society, in Viedma, his hometown. He offered to take me on his plane, I accepted, and I thanked him publicly. That same year, I decided to get involved in politics and ran for president. I had never participated in an election and had no idea what the behind-the-scenes of politics were like,” Espert said in the video.

He then stated that many people had approached him in 2019 because “the ideas of freedom, after many years, were once again gaining traction in Argentina”. 

“Machado was one of them, as were those who lent us the electoral seal with which we competed. I say again: Machado was one of the many people who collaborated in the 2019 campaign. In addition, Machado told me that a mining company linked to him needed my services as an economist,” he added. 

Espert said the payments he received were “not for campaign purposes or the performance of public office,” but for private consulting work. He said he never received funds “that weren’t duly justified” or that “could even be suspected of having an illicit origin,” and described the transfer as a down payment.

“I may have been naive, but I was never a criminal,” he said.

Espert dismissed the opposition’s accusations as part of a “smear campaign” that was “invented four years ago.”

“[Opposition candidate] Grabois raised the same arguments again, and now he’s attacking my family. He uses it as an alleged proof of my growing wealth. I tell you that my father passed away in 2018. Together with my siblings, we inherited the farm in Pergamino where he worked his entire life. That’s why my assets grew in the following years, because I began to collect money that I didn’t have before,” he defended himself.

Support from President Milei 

Following Espert’s video, President Javier Milei publicly defended him, calling the allegations part of a “gross and filthy operation.”

“Professor @jlespert dismantling the filthy and gross operation mounted by Kirchnerism. The Kirchnerists are covered in corruption cases and, like all thieves, they believe others are like them. The end,” he said on his X account.

With information from Ámbito