A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld charges against Diego Spagnuolo, the former head of Argentina's National Disability Agency (ANDIS), and 18 other people accused of running a kickback scheme on the agency's purchases of high-cost medicines, moving the country's most politically sensitive corruption case a step closer to trial.
Judges Eduardo Farah and Roberto Boico of the Federal Chamber's second panel confirmed that Spagnuolo should face charges of leading an illicit association, aggravated fraud against the public administration, bribery and conducting business incompatible with public office, according to Infobae and BAE Negocios. Investigators say the scheme ran from December 2023 to October 2025, steering purchases to selected pharmacies at inflated prices in exchange for payments to officials.
What the Court Found
The ruling cites price jumps on individual drugs: one medicine was quoted at 21 million pesos (about US$13,600) in April and May 2025 and at 25 million pesos (about US$16,200) by July. Among those whose charges were confirmed are lobbyist Miguel Ángel Calvete and his daughter Ornella Calvete, a former Economy Ministry official, in whose apartment investigators found close to US$700,000 in cash, as well as several former ANDIS staff.
The judges also rejected defense challenges to the leaked audio recordings attributed to Spagnuolo that first exposed the case in August 2025, and upheld an expert analysis of the recordings, including a summons for Spagnuolo to provide a voice sample for comparison. In those recordings, the speaker refers to the president's sister and secretary general, Karina Milei, and to Eduardo "Lule" Menem. Neither is among the 19 people charged. Judge Ariel Lijo now oversees the investigation and is due to rule on the status of other suspects.
A Witness From Bolivia
A day after the ruling, Bolivian lawyer Nadia Beller testified to prosecutor Franco Picardi by videoconference from Bolivia. Beller, the former partner of political consultant Fernando Cerimedo, confirmed her earlier public statements that Cerimedo had told her Karina Milei was involved in wrongdoing at the agency, and made her mobile phone available to investigators, La Nación reported. "What I did was ratify what I had already told the Argentine press," she said.
Cerimedo is detained in Bolivia, where authorities are investigating him over the August shooting of Beller outside a hotel in Santa Cruz.
The confirmed charges mean the case against Spagnuolo and the other 18 defendants can proceed toward an oral trial. Whether it reaches anyone closer to the president depends on what Lijo and Picardi make of the audios and Beller's phone, and that question will hang over the government through the run-up to the 2027 elections.