“Let’s go, Manuel!”: Milei blesses his chief of staff investigated for illicit enrichment

There is support for politicians investigated for alleged corruption that can come in the privacy of a mobile phone message with a “be strong” as happened in Spain, but there is also another kind, under the media spotlight, with an open face and without any fissures. What was seen last morning this Thursday in the Congress of . belongs to this last type. With the entire staff of the Government of La Libertad Avanza (LLA) in the guest box and the president himself, shouting: “Come on, Manuel!”

Milei was referring to the real protagonist of the day in the Lower House, Manuel Adorni, who is his chief of staff and has been cornered in recent weeks by a battery of information that has brought to light alleged irregularities that have led to an investigation for alleged illicit enrichment. Accusations that, during an hour and a half intervention, Adorni denied, also rejecting any possibility of presenting his resignation. “I did not commit any crime and I am going to prove it in court,” he said, which will be the key that will decide his future, trusting it to the court process.

In fact, Adorni has used Milei’s support as one of the arguments for not leaving office. “I want to make it clear to everyone that no. On the contrary, I am here showing my face. The president of the nation entrusts me with the honor and responsibility of coordinating the Cabinet of ministers of the most reformist Government in history. I am going to continue working to materialize the dream of a different Argentina,” said the person who was also the voice of the Milei Executive.

What exactly is Adorni, Milei’s chief of staff, accused of?: the flights with his wife to undeclared homes

This month of April has hosted the fourth of the major blows that the Milei brothers have received. It comes after the , but also after the scandal with (ANDIS) and the audios that pointed towards his sister Karina or the fall of , his former candidate who headed the list in Buenos Aires, when he was denounced.

Adorni’s case is different from all of them and difficult to explain as it involves accusations that place a key cog in the Argentine anarcho-capitalist Government maintaining a lifestyle that is impossible to justify with his declared income. That is, the same voice that, beyond the noise of the chainsaw, was in charge of justifying the need for social cuts, the man who came out to argue one that translates, among other things, into thousands of layoffs and factory closures; Now he has to explain how two undeclared properties have arisen out of nowhere.

Where does this perfect political storm for Milei’s point man come from? Everything exploded during an official trip to New York (USA). Not because of the multiple international transfers made by the Milei Executive, but because of the presence of Adorni’s wife, Bettina Angeletti, in said delegation. It was not possible to explain the reason for her traveling. But it didn’t stop there, it was the starting signal for the videos that would begin to appear just a few hours later.

In the case of his wife, a recording was added in which Adorni and his family could be seen taking a private plane whose round trip to Punta del Este—a well-known tourist city in Uruguay—is estimated at around $10,000. That video was accompanied by a harsher headline, which places him after the purchase, in 2024, of a house in the name of Bettina Angeletti in the private neighborhood of Indio Cua Golf Club that is not within the aforementioned declaration of assets. But when he came out to give explanations, Adorni ended up admitting that he lives in an apartment in the Caballito neighborhood (Buenos Aires) that did not include said statement either.

The focus did not take long to focus on the case of the Caballito home, when other information emerged about how said apartment was acquired in the Buenos Aires neighborhood. It did so in November 2025 for a price of $230,000, but alarm bells went off when examining the purchase method. The two women who sold that property left him the equivalent of 90% of its cost: $200,000. If it is already strange that you are going to buy a home and its owners give you a loan of such magnitude, the profile of those women is even stranger. They are two retirees, 72 and 64 years old.

But then, Adorni had not declared any home in the eyes of the Anti-Corruption Office? Yes, this includes a property in another neighborhood of the Argentine capital, in Parque Chacabuco, which had a mortgage of $75,000, signed in 2014 by the then-owner who sold it to her. According to in 2024 and exactly on the same day that the Indio Cua Golf Club apartment was purchased, a second mortgage of $100,000 was made, but in favor of two other women. The same medium reports that they have stated that.

Adorni says he will reveal the reserved annex “only in the face of a court order”

Along these lines, and within the framework of his statement this morning, Adorni has defended that he has complied with what is stated in the public ethics law and has directly appealed to the deadlines of said norm. “The assets that make up the assets of my family group are included in the reserved annex,” stressed the chief of staff of the Milei Government, pointing out that this “works before the Anti-Corruption Office and contains confidential information, in accordance with the current regulatory regime.”

And that is the key. Adorni has made it clear “only in the face of a judicial request” will he reveal the content of said annex. “All issues that are part of an ongoing judicial case must be resolved in that area,” he added, recalling that the deadline established by said law for having to present his “sworn statement” has not yet ended and that “it will be at that time that the corresponding detail will be formulated.” That is, he does not plan to move until he is legally obliged to do so.