The scandal surrounding Carlos Frugoni It is part of a sequence of revelations about undeclared assets that, in recent weeks, have hit different actors linked to the ruling party and the libertarian ecosystem. Although with a smaller volume than other recent cases, the situation of the official came under scrutiny due to the existence of real estate in Miami that had not been recorded in formal statements, which raised questions about his fiscal situation and its compatibility with functions performed.
Just hours after the scandal became known, the Minister of Economy Luis Caputo displaced Frugoni from the Infrastructure Coordination Secretariat, the position he had held since January 2026. The decision came after an investigation by channel A24 exposed that the economist owned at least seven properties in the state of Florida and two commercial companies in Delaware, all without declaring before the Anti-Corruption Office (OA) or before the Customs Collection and Control Agency (ARCA).
As revealed in A24, Frugoni articulated the purchase and management of the properties through two limited liability companies incorporated in Delaware, one of the most opaque North American states for asset tracking: Genova LLC (created in 2021) and Waki LLC (created in 2025). Both would have been registered through Harvard Business Services Inc. as registering agent, and would appear with Frugoni as controlling and beneficial owner.
The properties are concentrated in South Florida: five of the seven properties are in Palm Beach County, in towns such as Delray Beach, Lantana, West Palm Beach and South Palm Beach. Their valuations range between $140,000 and $310,000. The investigation also identified an apartment on South Ocean Boulevard valued at $215,000, among others. Before journalist Nicolás Wiñaski, Frugoni himself admitted the omission: “I made a mistake. I was rectifying this situation because now I am a national official. I was wrong. I am also going to include the departments in ARCA.”
Frugoni’s replacement will be Fernando Herrmann, an architect who graduated from the University of Belgrano with an EMBA from the IAE, who until that Sunday held the Ministry of Transportation. In turn, Mariano Plencovich, until then Undersecretary of Automotive Transport, will replace Herrmann. The internal displacements, in short, exposed the fragility of the trust that Caputo had built around infrastructure management.
The Frugoni case dialogues with a broader and more scandalous scenario starring Manuel Adorni. Weeks ago, the Chief of Staff was involved in a judicial investigation for alleged illicit enrichment, focused on a series of real estate transactions that, according to Justice, present inconsistencies between declared income and recent acquisitions.
The judicial proceedings reconstruct a purchasing network that includes at least three properties: an apartment in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Caballito, another unit in Parque Chacabuco and a house in the Indio Cuá country, in Exaltación de la Cruz. The operation of the Caballito property became the focus of the file. According to the notary’s statement Adriana Monica Nechevenko Before prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita, the property was acquired with an atypical scheme: an advance payment of $30,000 and a balance of $200,000 financed by the sellers themselves, without interest and payable within a year.
The saleswomen, identified as the retired Claudia Sbabo and Beatriz Viegaswere also incorporated into the case as key witnesses. The investigation attempts to determine how this private financing was structured and whether there were undue benefits or triangulations in the operation.
Another element that raised alarms was the late inclusion of assets in the sworn statements. In particular, the house located in the Indio Cuá country had not been initially registered and was incorporated later, which reinforced suspicions about heritage omissions. The case also investigates the role of real estate intermediaries and the previous owners, while testimonies from actors linked to the operations accumulate, including those responsible for the real estate company and relatives of the retirees involved.
Taken together, both the Frugoni and Adorni episodes reflect a pattern that involves the exposure of incomplete or inconsistent assets, the use of unconventional financing schemes, and the reaction of Javier Milei’s government to the political cost of these revelations. While in some cases the response was immediate displacement, in others—such as that of the Chief of Staff—the official strategy has been to support the official while the investigations progress.
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