Argentine Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni has been formally charged with alleged illicit enrichment following revelations of a reported 500% increase in his declared assets over a single fiscal period. Federal judge Ariel Lijo on April 9 ordered the lifting of banking and tax secrecy for Adorni and his wife, Bettina Angeletti, at the request of prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita. The case was triggered by a formal complaint filed by lawmaker Marcela Pagano.
The scandal widened rapidly after it emerged that Angeletti had travelled aboard the presidential aircraft to New York in an official capacity she does not hold. Further revelations followed: a nearly 200-square-metre apartment in Buenos Aires' Caballito neighbourhood, purchased through an unusual non-bank mortgage of $200,000 granted by two retirees who say they do not know the official, appeared to be undeclared. A privately funded flight to Punta del Este — the Uruguayan coastal resort — is the subject of a separate judicial investigation.
The political damage has been severe. Polling firm Innova found that 70% of respondents consider Adorni corrupt, while a Trends survey placed negative assessments of President Javier Milei's administration at 59%. For the first time, that survey showed Buenos Aires province Governor Axel Kicillof — a Peronist opposition figure — leading Milei in voting intention. A third pollster, Proyección, found that 58.9% of those surveyed view the case as a serious blow to the ruling party's credibility.
Despite the mounting pressure, Milei and his sister Karina — who serves as the presidency's secretary-general and is widely regarded as a key power broker within the administration — have stood publicly behind Adorni. At an expanded cabinet meeting last Monday, the president delivered a lengthy personal defence of his Cabinet chief, a gesture that reportedly drew visible discomfort among ministers who consider Adorni's position untenable. Government insiders attribute the loyalty to a lack of obvious successors and to Karina Milei's reluctance to remove her chief political operative.
The Adorni affair lands against an already difficult economic backdrop. Real registered wages fell in January, with a 2% nominal rise failing to keep pace with 2.8% inflation. Household loan delinquency at banks reached 10.6%, nearly four times the level of a year ago, according to Central Bank data. A report by the National Technological University warned of a growing disconnect between economic output and employment: private-sector payrolls fell 1.4% year-on-year, unemployment reached 7.5% in the fourth quarter of 2025, and informality climbed to 43%. The strain is visible at the municipal level too — the local government of Sauce de Luna, in the northeastern province of Entre Ríos, announced it would pay part of public-sector salaries in food vouchers, while Malargüe, in western Mendoza province, was unable to cover its electricity bill. Together, the scandal and the economic data represent the sharpest challenge yet to Milei's anti-corruption, pro-market brand.