“I don’t want to hinder the actions of Justice. Justice continues to act and do what it has to do. We are absolutely calm and, sooner or later, the truth will come to light,” he stated. Javier Milei in radio dialogue with Gabriel Anello. In the Radio Miter cycle, the president referred to the case of ANDIS bribes and with a broken voice he stated: “Unfortunately, politics has that filth that is the complicity of the media.”
The libertarian president disassociated his government from the case initiated by the recordings of Diego Spagnuolo and pointed out against the media, in a general way, that disseminated the wiretapping. “They play politics very well with the media, they create other causes. They plant them in the media, that means that Justice has to move to investigate,” Milei explained and justified that these cases were opened to try to harm the government in the mid-term elections.
The case that investigates alleged bribes and awards directed at the National Disability Agency (ANDIS) shook the political agenda again this week with the investigation of the former head of the organization and new measures on businessmen linked to the file. The federal prosecutor’s office led by Franco Picardi maintains that there was a systematic mechanism of overpricing and illegal payments that would have favored certain drugstores and firms that provide medicines and supplies for disability programs.
Spagnuolo arrived in Comodoro Py to give a statement before the judge Sebastian Casanello and, according to the chroniclers who followed the investigation, he refused to answer questions from the judge and the prosecutor, an option provided for by law. His presentation lasted about an hour and a half; Later, his defense qualified his position and sought to separate him from the major accusations, while admitting personal ties with some of the operators mentioned in the case.
In his presentation to the press and appearing in his defense strategy, Spagnuolo questioned the chronology and plausibility of some evidence in the file. “The five million are announced as having been given on June 11, the photos are from August 13. In other words, it took them two months and two days to raise the five million for a trip or they are not contemporaneous,” he stated, in a passage reproduced by the media.
The investigation, initiated after the dissemination of audios and documentation seized in raids, charged fifteen people with crimes that include bribery, fraud and illicit association. Among the main appointees are, in addition to Spagnuolo, the businessman Miguel Ángel Calvete —arrested and who refused to testify—and the operator Daniel Garbelliniindicated in the file as a key piece to direct hiring. Supplier companies also appear in court records, headed by the Kovalivker family’s Suizo Argentina drug store, which would have paid percentages on the awarded contracts.
One of the aspects that generated the most political impact is the mention, in some of the evidentiary elements that the prosecution incorporated, of the name of Karina Milei — Secretary General of the Presidency — as a possible recipient of returns from the operators. The public note on this point generated a response from the government that, for now, denies irregularities and denounces “destabilization” operations.
Prosecutors estimate that the scheme would have applied fixed percentages of 8% on purchases and contracts, which according to preliminary calculations would involve millions of dollars diverted from funds intended for health and inclusion programs for people with disabilities. Of that percentage, according to the recordings analyzed and broadcast by the media, 3% were addressed to the president’s sister. The complaints and seized evidence are the basis for the requests for investigation and the arrests ordered in recent days.
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