MADRID, 21 (EUROPA PRESS)
Argentine President Javier Milei has dismissed Diego Spagnuolo, director of the National Disability Agency, following the release of a series of audio recordings in which the senior government official allegedly alludes to bribery by the public agency he heads.
"In light of the public facts and the clear political exploitation by the opposition during an election year, the president of the nation has preemptively decided to remove Diego Spagnuolo, executive director of the National Disability Agency," the Argentine presidency said in a statement.
In this regard, he indicated that the Minister of Health, Mario Lugones, "will intervene in the agency and announce the name of the agency's supervisor in the coming hours, in order to ensure its normal and proper functioning."
The measure comes shortly after Milei, her sister Karina, and other senior officials were charged with corruption in connection with the irregular purchase of medicines through the aforementioned agency.
The complaint, filed by attorney Gregorio Dalbón, who represented former President Cristina Fernández in previous cases, details a network of "bribe collection and payment related to the purchase and supply of medicines, with direct impact on public funds."
The document names the Milei brothers, Spagnuolo, Karina's advisor, Eduardo "Lule" Menem, and the owner of the Suizo Argentina pharmaceutical company, Eduardo Kovalivker. The defendants allegedly committed "crimes of bribery, fraudulent administration, negotiations incompatible with the exercise of public functions, and violations of the Public Ethics Law," as indicated in the document.
The complaint is based on audio recordings leaked Wednesday afternoon by the streaming channel Carnaval and later reported by local media outlets such as 'Clarín,' in which Spagnuolo admits to the existence of an "illegal collection" system involving the head of state, his sister, and the three other defendants. "Of what they charge for medications, you have to pay 8 percent, you have to bring it to the Swiss Agency, and we'll upload it to the Presidency," stated the head of the Disability Agency.
"Karina gets 3 percent and 1 percent goes to the operation," Spagnuolo added, while in another part of the recording he claimed that he was the one speaking to the president. "I have all of Karina's WhatsApp messages. He's not involved, but all of his people are. They're going to ask the lenders for money," he added.
