José Luis Espert, the economist who made his political career with the slogan “jail or bullet,” appears today entangled in a plot that leaves him in a bad position in the face of his own speech. Documents and testimonies link him to Federico “Fred” Machado, an Argentine businessman involved in a drug trafficking and fraud case in the United States.
The original case began in Texas, where Machado faces a judicial process along with his partner Debra Lynn Mercer-Erwin, sentenced in 2024 to 16 years in prison for drug trafficking, laundering and fraud. In the accounting seized by prosecutors, an entry dated February 1, 2020 appears: a transfer for $200,000 in the name of Espert. The money would have come from Aircraft Guarantee Corp, a trust managed by Mercer-Erwin, designated as a front to register aircraft and, according to the accusation, cover up a scam and cocaine smuggling scheme disguised as aircraft purchase and sale operations. Today, Machado remains in Viedma under house arrest, waiting for justice to define his extradition to the United States. The problem for Espert is that he never declared that contribution either before the Electoral Justice or in public. And this is not an isolated fact: the reconstruction of the 2019 presidential campaign shows Machado as its main financier. In addition to the money, he provided logistics: a private jet that the candidate used and an armored Jeep Grand Cherokee truck registered to a cousin of his named Claudio Cicarelli. Espert even thanked him in a video for “the excellent flight” after landing in Viedma.
The businessman’s 4×4 ended up being the protagonist of a dark episode and the trigger for linking Espert with Machado: in August 2019 it was attacked on the way to the Crónica TV channel. There were two stones on the corner of Avenida Madero and Avenida Córdoba, in downtown Buenos Aires. When the incident was investigated, it was confirmed that the vehicle belonged to the businessman’s inner circle. This magazine revealed that Machado was the man who was financing Espert’s campaign.
The contributions in kind – plane, car and cash – were never declared as required by law. According to former members of the political space, Machado’s aid could have climbed to 700 thousand dollars and even more. At the end of that year, things happened that any observer of reality would find suspicious: if you search for all of Espert’s sworn statements presented so far, you can find the one from 2018 – incorporated when he was a candidate for president in 2019 – and those accumulated since 2021, due to his mandate as a deputy. There you can see that Espert’s asset leap occurred in 2019. He bought a house in San Isidro of about 470 square meters, acquired a BMW 240i 0km coupe and to close the year received an inheritance in his native Pergamino. Furthermore, Espert and his wife established the company Varianza SA in December 2019, with no known activity. A striking inconsistency is that in his sworn statement as a deputy it appears that the company dates from July 2020.
He was not the only one who had economic changes in his life after the presidential campaign: his running mate Luis Rosales left behind a 2012 Volkswagen Tiguan and switched to a 2020 Toyota Rav hybrid. Nice flat.
Contributor. “Fred” Machado, 57 years old, was born in Viedma and built his fortune in Florida, where he founded the South Aviation firm and a handful of aeronautical companies. For the United States Justice, his business was just the façade of a structure dedicated to defrauding clients within a Ponzi scheme. Through the trust, it offered to register airplanes with North American “N” registration – with fewer controls -, but the final destination of the money was a mining venture in Guatemala.
Of the 190 operations detected in the accounting books, only ten corresponded to real sales; the rest were fraudulent maneuvers.
But the drug chapter is added to the case, because several of those planes ended up crashed or seized in Central and South American countries with drug shipments. In 2021, required by Texas Justice, Machado fled first to Mexico and then entered Argentina. He was arrested on April 16 at the Neuquén airport by order of Interpol. Since then, he has been under house arrest in his mother’s house in Viedma while his defense – headed by Francisco Oneto, Javier Milei’s lawyer and also Espert’s – seeks to delay the extradition.
Machado denies any ties to drug trafficking. In an interview with the WFAA channel in Dallas, he admitted to having diverted funds from investors in a Ponzi scheme with airplanes, but framed it as a financial fraud unrelated to drugs. “I’m not a saint, I made mistakes, but I’m not a drug trafficker,” he swore and promised to return the money if he regains his freedom. Regarding this, he explained: “The clients thought they were investing in one thing – the planes – but they were investing in something else,” the mine in Guatemala.
When Machado was arrested in 2021, the relationship came to the surface and Espert played it down, accusing his rivals of mounting a political “operation.” The tension coincided with the breakdown of his electoral partnership with Javier Milei: they went from allies to furious enemies. Milei told Alejandro Fantino on his streaming channel that in 2021 they offered him $300,000 to get out of running for deputy. The one who gave the name and surname to the “valijero” was Daniel Parisini, alias “Gordo Dan”, in his The fight distanced them for more than two years, until in 2023, after Milei’s presidential victory, Espert was added to the libertarian front. A political reunion with pending accounts that still resonate.
With Javier Milei in the Casa Rosada, José Luis Espert – “the Profe”, as he calls him – became a central figure of the libertarian ruling party. Deputy and first candidate of La Libertad Avanza in the province of Buenos Aires for the 2025 legislative elections, the economist was in the eye of the storm when the revelations about “Fred” Machado broke out in the middle of the campaign.
In crisis. Cornered by questions, Espert had to speak. In his first appearances, he acknowledged having met Machado in 2018, during the presentation of his book “La Sociedad Complicit”, and admitted that in 2019 he traveled on his plane to Viedma. But he distanced himself from the accusations: he said that he knew nothing about the illegal activities that years later were attributed to the businessman and he defined himself as “naive.” According to his version, the planes and vehicles he used were provided by José Bonacci’s UNITE label, without him controlling their origin. “We candidates get on what the party gives us. Are you asking if the taxi you take had accidents before?” he launched. It was denied.
Faced with the accounting discovery that linked him to a transfer of 200 thousand dollars, he avoided a direct response: he described the document as “a piece of paper” and accused Juan Grabois of mounting a dirty campaign. “I’m not going to please Grabois. I’m going to follow him to the bottom of the bed,” he challenged. Regarding his candidacy, he was categorical: “There is no way I am going to resign. I am stronger than ever. The President supports me.”
Milei also held it. However, behind closed doors the discomfort was evident. Libertad Avanza had made the fight against drug trafficking and corruption a banner, and now one of its leaders was under suspicion. Patricia Bullrich was the toughest: she asked Espert to give clear explanations, reminded that the bar of space had to be “very high” and warned that links with drug trafficking could not be tolerated. “José Luis has to return to the media and be clear,” he noted.
The case also laid bare the contradictions of the libertarian world. Lilia Lemoine, today an LLA deputy, was one of those who questioned him the most in the past: she even said that in 2019 he was financed by a drug trafficker and accused him of being “treacherous.” Agustín Romo, current Buenos Aires legislator from LLA, had called him a “vaxijero” for having gotten on Machado’s plane. And Milei himself, in 2021, signed a document in which he questioned the origin of his former ally’s funds. All of this, which until recently was internal ammunition, was put on hold after the 2023 victory. Today Espert is an official candidate and, despite the noise generated by his old connections, the Government chose to shield him for the elections.
Stories. Beyond the Machado chapter, Espert’s political course accumulates other uncomfortable episodes. In May 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, Carlos Maslatón organized a stream, in which he added Gonzalo Díaz Córdoba, Espert’s former campaign manager. Díaz Córdoba launched serious accusations. According to him, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta would have secretly financed Espert’s presidential campaign in 2019 in exchange for explicit support in the general election. The truth is that, after being left out of the race, Espert surprised by publicly asking for a vote for Larreta, which revived suspicion of a hidden pact.
In that same exchange, Díaz Córdoba left doubts floating about the management of proselytizing funds. Asked if they had “scraped the campaign money,” he replied: “I don’t deny it… I have no evidence to the contrary.” Espert “categorically” denied any contribution from Larreta, but the controversy was already established. Maslatón, for his part, admitted having put “black” cash into the campaign and claimed to have felt betrayed when he found out that Espert’s team had “arranged with Macri.” He even suggested that some collaborators were “awarded” with positions in the City of Buenos Aires after that agreement.
These testimonies paint a complicated picture: while Espert showed himself as an implacable outsider against “the caste,” his campaign would have received money from businessmen linked to drug trafficking and traditional political sectors. The contradictions are evident. The same leader who demanded “jail or bullet” for corrupt people and drug traffickers appears linked to illegal contributions, crossed favors and inconvenient friendships.
Today, the liberal deputy rejects all accusations and claims to be a victim of operations, while Milei supports him politically. But Machado’s shadow has already left a mark on his figure. Whether Justice advances or not, Espert’s credibility is questioned.
