In the middle of the pandemic, in October 2020, Manuel Adorni He worked as a communicator and economic analyst. That’s when the virtual wallet Lemon called him to give a video conference titled “Economic news and cryptocurrencies”. The clip, still available on the platform’s YouTube channel, took on an unexpected dimension this week, when the now Chief of Staff presented his corrective affidavit to the Anti-Corruption Office, in which he tried to explain the origin of more than half a million dollars that did not appear in his previous presentations.
In that video, Adorni explained how bitcoin works with didactic enthusiasm. “Bitcoin was worth 40 thousand dollars in 2020, accumulating a 330% increase”he pointed out, and described the currency in terms that resonate differently today: “It is a virtual currency, it does not have paper, but we can have it in a virtual wallet, in a cloud, on the internet. It is anonymous, and the states cannot follow its movements”. A definition that, in the context of a judicial investigation for illicit enrichment, takes on particular weight.
That same week, when giving explanations in a television interview, Adorni maintained that he had begun to invest “strong” in bitcoin since 2014. However, in the 2020 video conference, he himself described his first contact with cryptocurrencies as something that happened “five or six years ago” and specified that at that time the price of Bitcoin was around 6,000 dollars. The first time the price touched that value was October 28, 2017which directly contradicts the timeline that the official tried to install.
The corrective affidavit that Adorni presented before the Anti-Corruption Office and ARCA incorporates, for the first time, assets for a total of USD 513,000 linked to investments in Bitcoin carried out between 2013 and 2018 through eight different virtual wallets. According to the official version, the initial investment was $200,000 and the accumulated profits in that period would have reached $300,000 additional. These funds—which had remained off the fiscal and patrimonial radar—would constitute the origin of the money used to buy a house in the country. Indio Cuárenovate it and acquire an apartment in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Caballito, all during 2025.
The presentation occurred in the midst of judicial investigations being processed in the Comodoro Py courts, led by the judge Ariel Lijo and the prosecutor Gerardo Pollicitafor alleged illicit enrichment and negotiations incompatible with public service. Adorni acknowledged before the cameras that “We save in black, like all Argentines”while his collaborators admitted that the previous sworn statements had had “sloppiness”. The question that remained open is whether bitcoin—anonymous, untraceable for states, as Adorni himself described it in 2020—was an investment or an alibi.
